19645
Latin America and the Caribbean:
Education and Technology at the Crossroads
A Discussion Paper
April 1998
EDUCAT, ON
A publication of the WorldB ank Human DevelopmentN etwork
EducationG roup - Educationa nd TechnologyT eam
Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized
4
Latin America and the Caribbean:
Education and Technology at the Crossroads
A Discussion Paper
April 1998
This is a drasr documentc irculatedf or discussiono nly. Commentsa nd suggestionsa re welcorea
will be considered in preparing the final version.
I
I
Contents
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Executive Summary
Chapter 1. Expanding Educational Opportunities and the Technology Challenges
Educational Achievements
Recent Reform Agendas
Current Issues
Pressures for Change
Guiding the Change Process
Education Technology Strategies Used in LAC
Chapter II. Technology Use in LAC Education Systems
Background
Improving Primary and Secondary Education Quality
Expanded Educational Materials
interactivity: Students, Teachers, and caregivers
Engaged Pedagogy
Computer-Assisted Instruction
Upper Secondary Education: School to Work Transition
Higher, Continuing, and Professional Education
Professional Development of Teachers
Chapter m. Financing Educational Technology
Overview
Comparative Costs of Educational Technology
Economies of Scale
Equity concerns and Costs
Affordability and Financial Sustainability
Conclusions
Chapter TV. Telecommunications Issues
Background
Telecommunications Infrastructure
Telecommunications Investment
The Internet
Internet Access and Cost Issues for Education
Options for Reducing Internet Costs
Dii
Contents iv
Chapter V. National Strategies for Education Technology Use
Developing a National Strategy
Education Policy and Goal-Setting
Teaching and Learning
Institutional Development and Capacity-Building
Chapter VI. World Bank Current and Future Support
Overview
Priority One: Technical Support
Priority Two: Disseminating Knowledge
Priority Three: Capacity Building
Priority Four: Distance Education
Priority Five: New Lending Instruments
TextTables
Table 1. LAC Regional Average Enrollment rates, 1990
Table 2. Higher Education Gross Enrollment, 1980-1994
Table 3. Distance Education Programs in Latin America
Table 4. Comparative Per-Student )sts of Educational Technology
Table 5. IRI Per-Student Cost at Various Program Scales, One Instructional Subject
Table 6. Costs of Educational Technologies in Relation to 20% of Discretionary Educational
Expenditure-Selected LAC and Other Developing Countries
Table 7. Teledensity by Region-Number of Telephone Lines per 100 Inhabitants
Table 8. Number of Radio/TV Receivers Per 100 Inhabitants by Region
Table 9. Trends in Annual Telecommunications Investment by Region (US$ million)
Table 10. Number of Internet Hosts per I million inhabitants in Latin America and the Caribbean
Table 11. Investment in Satellite Communications
Annexes
Annex I. Cost Tables
Table Ia. Cost Model of Computer/Internet Instruction in a Large School in Latin America and
the Caribbean
Tablelb. Cost Model of Computer/Intemnet Instruction in Latin American and the Caribbean,
Small Rurl School
Table 2. Costs of IRI Programs in Primary Schools-Typical Large-scale Program
Table 3. Economies to Scale in Distance Learning Technologies
Table 4. Calculations of Potential Discretionary Spending for Technology in Selected LAC
and Other Developing Countries
s'
v . Contents
AnnexI I. TelecommunicationTs ables
Table 1. Teledensityi n LAC Countries- Numbero f TelephoneM ain Lines per 100 Inhabit-
ants
Table2 . Numbero f Radio/TVr eceiversp er 100 inhabitantsL atin America and the Caribbean
Table3 . Costs for TelephoneS ervices SelectedC ountriesi n
LatinA mericaa nd the Caribbean( US$ equivalent)
Table4 . Trendsi n AnnualT elecommunicationIsn vestmentb y Region
Table5 . Trendsi n AnnualT elecommunicationIsn vestmenti n Centrala nd SouthA mericaa nd
the Caribbean
Table6 . AnnualP er Capita Investmenti n Telecommunicationisn  Centrala nd South America
and the Caribbean
Table7 . Numbero f InternetH ostsp er I million Inhabitantsi n Latin Americaa nd the Carib-
bean
Table8 . InternetF ees in SelectedL AC Countries
AnnexI II. WorldB ank EducationP rojects
AnnexIV. SelectedE ducationalW ebsites: LatinA merica and the Caribbean
AnnexV : References
I
Foreword
This is the first regionalr eport by the World Bank on the role of technology in education. The report
respondst o growing interest in the role of technology in education by the Bank's client countries,t he donor
community,a nd the private sector.
Rapidlye volvingt echnologiesa re being appliedw orldwidet o addresss eeminglyi ntractablee ducationp rob-
lems, especiallyt hose related to accessa nd quality,b ut also as innovationst o anticipatef uturet renclsi n the way
educationals ervicesa t all levelsc ould be delivered. The demandf or such applicationsis  clear-cut.W ithins chool
walls, teachersa nd studentsn ow accessi nformationa nd knowledget hroughI ntemet connections.T he electronic
exchangeo f ideas aboutt eachinga nd leamingh as generatedn ew ways to enhancet he curriculaa nd to stimulate
professionald evelopment.O utside the classroom, studentsa nd teachersm ore frequentlyi nteract ithroughn ew
combinationso f distance-educationf ormats.I n addition,c onnectionst o cultural and scientifici nstitutions,a nd
the growth in connectivityu sing varioust elecommunicationms odes in the home and elsewhere,h as led to expec-
tations that informationa nd knowledges haringa nd leaming seeminglyh ave no barriers.
To capitalizeo n the potentialo f availablet echnology,c ountriesn ow need to developt heir own educational
strategiest o make technology integral to their education vision and strategic planning for the year 2000 and
beyond.I n the current dynamice nvironment,e ducationald ecisionst aken duringt he next few years undoubtedly
will have long-lastingc onsequencesf or the educationala nd productivef uture of all LAC societies. Countries
will need to prepare a facilitatinge nvironment o encourageb oth public and privates ectorst o contributef ully to
educationi n this regard.
Building the required infrastructuret o accommodaten ew education technologiesl ooms on the horizon.
Current capacityv aries considerablyi n the LAC region. Investments trategiesm ust reflect the fiscal reality of
each country;h owever,a s noted in the report, educationalt echnologya ppearsw ithinr each of all coumtrieos f the
region if it is carefullys electeda nd deployeda t suitablee ducationall evels and where cost-effectivenessc an be
achieved.
An importantc onsiderationn ot to be overlookedi s the potential inequitiest hat could be perpetuatedw hen
planningt echnologyi nvestmentsA. ll segmentso f the learner populationss houldb e considered,b ut speciala tten-
tion shouldb e givent o technologya ccessb y the poor in both rural and urbana reas.A bovea ll, the incorporationo f
technologiesm ust be organizedt o maintaino pen societiest hat encouraget he free flow of informaltion.
vi
7~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Acknowledgments
This reportw as preparedu ndert he directiono f MichaelP otashnik,L ead Specialista nd Head, Educationa nd
TechnologyT eam, HumanD evelopmenNt etwork,E ducationG roup,a nd DonaldW inklerE, ducationS ectorL eader,
Latin America Social and Human Development( LASCHD). Contributorsw ere: Jan Hawkins,I )irector, and
DanielL ight, staff, TheC enterf or Childrena nd TechnologyE, ducationa nd DevelopmenCt enter( EDC),M ichael
PotashnikD, ouglasA dkins,R obertH awkinsA, drianaJ aramillo,W illiamM ayville,H idekiM ori,E loy Vidal,S uhas
Parandakara nd PatrickT se (WorldB ank).
vii
.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Executive Summary
Progress and Continuing Challenges
The countrieso f Latin America and the Caribbeanh ave made importants trides in increasingp rimary and
secondarys chool enrollnents. Despite such progress,c ountrieso f the region confrontm ajor challengesi n the
developmento f educationi n the years ahead. Indices of educationq uality,s uch at the Third InternationaMl ath-
ematicsa nd ScienceS tudy( TIMSS),r eveal that LatinA mericac ountriesl ag behind many othern ations in student
achievemento n these measures.
The context for educationald evelopmenth as been changinga s a consequenceo f economicg lobalization,
shifts planned or underwayt owards servicea nd informatione conomies, and the persistenceo f poverty and in-
equality. Many of the challengesf acing educationr esult from telecommunicationas nd informationg eneration
covering all aspectso f economica nd social life. LAC countriesh ave been using technologyf or many yearst o
deliver educationals ervices,m ostly in the form of radio and broadcastt elevision.B oth have been effectivem 
addressings pecifice ducationc hallenges,e speciallyr eaching studentsi n rural areas. The problems that are ad-
dressed and the achievementsa re significant. There are, however,s ignificantd ifferencesi n the applicationa nd
cost of technologiesn ow availablef or education,a nd thus in the way they are being--or couldb e-now and in the
next century.T hec ombinationo f small and powerfulm ultimediac omputersw ith the expandingr each of telecom-
municationst echnologiesi n the region are starting to provide new technologicalc apacity that could address
many chronic educationc hallenges.
The complexitya nd cost of these technologiess houldn ot deter innovativee xperimentationth at must pre-
cede large-scaleu se in educationals ettings. Withc arefulp lanning, and given the continuousd ecreasei n costs,
these technologiesm ay offer the most importanto pportunityf or improvinge ducationa vailablei n many decades.
Moreover,t echnologiesa t all educationall evelsc an be appliede ven under currentb udget constraintsi f strategi-
cally developeda nd carefullyp lanned.
National Strategies for Education and Technology
Most LAC countriesl ack a comprehensives trategyf or incorporatingt echnologyi nto their educationals ys-
tems-even thoughs everala re now makings ignificanti nvestments.A  few major projectsi n some coumtrieisn  the
region provide evidenceo f how best to proceed. In additions ome smaller,g enerally free-standingp rojects,n ot
coordinatedi nto an overall educationalp lanningf rameworkc an be found in most countries.M ore evaluationi s
needed of these early investmentse fforts, especiallyt heir cost and the applicationo f lessons in other efforts in
the same or other LAC countries.*
For example,s eeM ariaI ndsA lvarez,F ranciscaR oman,M ariaC eciliaD obles,J eaninaU mafla,M agalyZ bfiigaJ, ackelineG arcia,B arbara
Means,M ichaelP otashnik,L auraR awlings.1 998.C omputersi n Schools:A  QualitativeS tudyo fChile and CostaR ica,E ducationa nd
TechnologyS eries,S peciall ssue. WashingtonD C, The WorldB ank.
viii
ix ExecutivSeu mmary
Ideally, investmenti n technologyw ill become an integral part of a country's overall strategy for education
improvement. World experiences uggestst hat it is prudent to coordinatet echnology planning and investments
with key education goalsr ather than to considert hem as merelyd iscrete applications.O ne of the greatesto ppor-
tunities is that technologym ay eventuallyp rovide higher quality educationt o substantiallym ore of the popula-
tio*-
The World Bank Priorities
The World Bank strategyw ill be to support countriesi n defining prioritiesa nd plans for the most effective
use of technology in education and training systems; experimentingw ith new technologiesa nd pilot projects;
disseminatingk nowledgea nd informationa bout good practice in the use of technology;a nd in developingp roce-
dures of continuousi nnovativea pplicationsb ased on empiricale vidence,a s educationt ools, methods,a nd mate-
rials will continuet o change;i n buildingc apacityt o design and managep rojects using technology;a nd an expan-
sion of lending and technical assistance to LAC countries for distance learning and technology in education
projects.
Chapter I
Expanding Educational Opportunities and the
Technology Challenges
Educational Achievements enrolledi n higher education institutions,c omprised
of traditionala nd non-traditionalu niversities,t ech-
LatinA mericana nd Caribbeanc ountriesi n the past nicali nstitutesa, nd professionals chools. Then ational
30 yearsh ave expandede ducationaol pportunitiesi,m - systems of science and technologyi nclude a few re-
provedq uality,e nhancedm anagemenot f educational searchu niversities,s pecializedN GOsb ut limiteds ci-
systems,a nd involvedt he private and the third sector entific and academicc ommunities.
(non-governmentaol rganizations).T hed ecadeo f the
1990sh as been one of growing commitment o the Table 1:
social purposeso f educationa nd preoccupationw ith 1990-1996L atin America and the Caribbear
issues of quality and access. kYh Enrollment Rates by School-age Group C'"1
Primawye ducationn ow is nearlyu niversala nd adult
literacyr ates increasedo ver 20 years( 1970-90)f rom a
76 percent to 86 percent. In 1970 only four of ten
school-agec hildreni n Chile had accesst o secondary a.
school;t oday,e ight often have that opportunityS. ev- 40 X
eral countries, including Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico,
Trinidada nd Tobago,a ndN icaraguad, oubledt heirsec- X
ondary school enrollment rates since 1970. Al- o
though disparitiese xist across and within countries, CEdki R *,uy S_y HO
the net enrolhmentr ates for the region as a whole WI) (12.17) Ed- 8
reached8 4.9 percent for childrenp rimary schoola ge sum UQ w.
(6-11), 36.1 percentf or childreno f secondarys chool
age (12-17) and 16.9p ercentf or youtho f highere du-
cation age (18-22)i n 1991 as showni n Table 1. Gen- RecentR eform Agendas
der differences in school access have tended to dis-
appear in all educationall evels. Recent educationalr eforms are aimed at improv-
ing learningo utcomes,d evelopingn ew curriculaa nd
Preschooln et enrollnent rates in the LAC region teachingm aterials,u pgradingt eacher competencies,
steadilyi ncreaseda s well- from 3.4 percenti n 1960 providingo pportunitiesf or communityi nvolvement,
to nearly 23 percent in 1996. This area is rapidlye x- and improvings chool management. The region has
pandingi n coveragea nd programd iversity.I n several identifiede ducationa s a politicala nd economicp ri-
countriesp oor childrena re beginningt o benefitf rom ority, as reflected in the Presidential HRemispheric
pre-schooling-althought here are still significanti n- Summits (1994 and 1996), the Nariiio Accord
equalitiesb etweenr ich and poor and urban and rural (1994),a nd the meetingso f the Head of States of the
children. IberoamericanN ations (1991-96).P ublic investment
in educationi ncreaseds teadilyi n most nations of the
Over 26 percent of the school-age populationi s region, except during the economic crisis of the
The Red Integrada de Parlicipaci6n Ciudadana in Bogota as a new project which combines
educational reform goals with broader social goals. The Red (networ&) is meant to create a more tolerant,
active, and civic-minded population. This is to be done using the newest telecommunications technologies
to bridge the gap between the public citizens and municipal government and by encouraging increased
communication among Bogota's diverse population and their organizations. The Red would function at
three levels. Schools would be provided with computers and a local area network (LAN) connected to local
school administrations and the municipal Secretary of Education. At the second level, the project will set
up Veinte Puntos de Informaci6n Ciudadana (twenty points of pub information.), where citizens can
access a variety of information sources, including their neighborhooa evelopment plans or copies of new
laws. At the third level, the Puntos de Tramite Administrativo (Points for Administrative Processing) will
permit citizens to meet routine municipal administrative requirements or obtain information about more
complicated procedures.
1980s. from national tests and international comparisons-
The extraordinary expansion of educational systems such as the TIMSS (Third Internanional Mathematics
has provided Latin America and the Caribbean with and Science Study), and a study conducted by the In-
diverse representation of private and public instirL- temational Association for the Evaluation of Educa-
tions, expertise, and some successful educational in- tional Achievement and UNESCO-suggests that most
novations and alternatives. Several innovations were students, especially those in pit c schools, fail to
developed by NGOs and private research centers, meet minimum objectives-of national curricula stan-
many of which involve the use of technology for dis- dards, with Latin American and Caribbean students
tance education. perfonning below their peers in other regions. Weak
educational outcomes point to poor quality of inputs,
Current Issues including: insufficient learning time, a school envi-
ronment that interferes with learning, low teacher ex-
Persistent inequality in the region, low quality of pectations coupled with inadequate preparation, and
educational supply and outcomes, and lack ofrelevant curricula irrelevant to students' lives and the chang-
educational experience to current country realities ing work requirements.
present immediate challenges to all Latin American
and Caribbean countries. Inequities include: unequal In a highly demanding, increasingly global work en-
access to education, and inequalities in school readi- viromnent, tertiary institutions also face critical chal-
ness, school attendance, educational environment, and lenges. Recent expansion has been slow compared
learning outcomes. The most effective education ap- to other societies. Academics and the private sector
pears concentrated among the wealthy and upper- are questioning the relevance of the traditional uni-
middle classes. The population most limited in edu- versity curriculum (as well as courses of study) in
cational opportu -y are indigenous girls and women; preparing students for emerging labor force needs or
for example, the average school attainment for Gua- for preparing scientists and engineers that will be re-
temalan indigenous females is less than one year. quired for national economic growth and development.
Educational inequalities clearly perpetuate income And the scientific and technological productivity of
and social inequity. Increasing the quality of basic universities is generally low. Finally, the higher edu-
education for the poor, providing early childhood edu- cation community has been slow to adopt new tech-
cation, and expanding access to upper-secondary and nologies, to integrate into the international research
higher education have become a part of a new strate- community, and to develop new educational fmance
gic vision for reducing inequality within LAC societ- schemes using more business-like approaches to uni-
ies, and dealing with disparities between LAC and other versity program and budget management encountered
regions at similar stages of economic development. in many other regions of the world.
Educational experts in the region are concerned Many LAC countries are decentralizing their edu-
with unsatisfactory educational outcomes. Evidence cation systems. There is a substantial need to enhance
2 The WorldB ank:H DNED:E ducationa nd TechnologyT eam
t
the qualitya nd efficiencyo f managementi n this sec- terpretationso f ever-increasingin formationi n knowl-
tor, includingt he developmento f an expandedl ead- edge databases.
ership and strategies to support decentralized and re- Economic development and technological change
sponsive school management. are transforming economies from agricultural and
industrial to service and information economies.
As computersa nd telecommunicationsin frastruc- These transformations have far-reaching conse-
ture become availablei n schools, technologyc an be quences for labor markets, which harbinger new
used to improve communicationb etween ministries forms of education,t raining, and certification.G ov-
and local educators,t o more efficientlyh andle and ernments are increasingly aware that an educated
communicated ata in a timely fashion,a nd to access workforcef amiliarw ith technologyw ill be a prereq-
support resourcesa nd professionalc ommunities. As uisite to promoting investmentsi n inftrmation and
school management systems become increasingly high-technology industries. There is an urgent need
decentralized, management information systems to facilitate transitions from school to the labor force
will become essential to promote efficient and ef- by preparing students to fimction in workplaces that
fective school administration. rapidly are being transformedb y informationt ech-
nologies. There is also need to increaseo pportuni-
Administrators generally require considerable ties for and effectivenesso f higher education in its
traininga nd supportt o decentralizeth eirs ystemss uc- partnershipw ith businessa nd industrya nd the private
cessfullya nd to gain the necessarys kills to use new sector.
technologies. Many more leaders will need to be
become adept information-handlers and decision- Poverty and inequality continue unabated in
makers over a broaderr ange of issues.T echnologies much of the region; indeed, income inequality is
are a very promisingc ontributort o developt echnol- worset odayi n many countriest han in the 1980s.N ot-
ogy-based leadership through Internet applications withstanding higher economic growth rates in the
that augmentc onventional eadershipt rainingb oth in 19 90s, economic globalization and technological
content and interactivity. Like teachers,a dministra- change increaset he gap betweenu rban and rural ar-
tors need to invigoratep rofessionalc ommunityd ia- eas and the well-educateda nd less-educatedi n both
log, which can be developeda nd perpetuate leader- rural and urbana reas.R ising inequalityp osesa  threat
ship skillsg ainedu singt echnologym entionedth rough to the social order and politicals tability. Education,
online environments. with the help of technology,c an eitheri ntensifyt hese
differences or help to overcome them. The chal-
Pressures for Change lenge facing governments is to use teclnology ap-
propriatelyt o close gaps in educationalo pportunity
The 1990sb rought about rapid changes in Latin and to provide skill-traininga nd life-long learning
American development.T he region now confronts opportunitiesf or all citizens.
new challengesb ecauset he contextf orprovidinge du-
cation, and approaches taken are quite different than Gains in democratic governance, as well as its
in the past. These challenges to the patterns of educa- reflection in civil society are being consolidated in
tion development can be delineated as follows: many countries after years of dictatorship and civil
strife. To consolidate democratic forms of gover-
Economic globalization is creating a new series nance, governments need to promote participatory
of economic relationships in which knowledge and decision-making to reinforce democratic values;
information management skills become major as- much ofthe population ofthe region-including young
sets for conducting business and commerce. To com- people-do not yet have the habit of civic participa-
pete effectivelyi n the new global economy,g overn- tion or of seeking relevant informationo n which to
ment and private sector officials are increasingly base informedo pinion abouts ocial issuesa nd priori-
awaret hat they must reorientt heir educations ystems ties. Sustainingd emocracyr equires addressings o-
to prepare childrenf or participationi n the informa- cial issues, such as the skewed income distribution
tion age througha cquisitiono f skillsn eeded for man- found in most LAC societies favoringu pper-income
aging significantlym ore knowledgea nd information, groups. Telecommunicationasn d informationn et-
for continuousl earninga nd upgradingo f skills, and works withins chools and the communitya t large (li-
for understandingm ore complex proceduresa nd in- braries,c ommunityc entersa nd banks) can foster de-
LatinA mericaa nd theC aribbean:E ducationa nd Technologya t the Crossroads 3
mocracy. The challengef acing the region is to use of better preparation,i mprovementi n the conditions
telecommunicationsa nd technology to promote an of teaching and the profession, and long-term pro-
educated and informed citizeer.y,i nstill democra fessionals upport of teachersm ust be addressed.
values, and fostera n .ierstandingo f how to partie,
pate activelyi n the productivel ife of their respective Guiding the Change Process
communities in the twenty-first century. Red
Integrada de Participacion Ciudadana appears to Several factors have been identifiedt o date from
be one promisinge xample. international experience--includingt hat of several
LAC countries--that foreshadow the direction of
The role of the state in economic and social af- change and the elementst hat should be reflectedi n
fairs is being redefined in many countries. To re- applicationsa nd implementationo f educationalt ech-
duce state subsidies and achieve greater efficiency, nology by governmentp lanners and educatorsa like:
governmentsh ave been privatizinga  wide range of
public enterprises. This process will continue into the Investments in and implementation of technolo-
next century and should produce highly beneficial gies for education are most succe.;sfulw hen coor-
results. Statesa re now creatingt he appropriatep olicy dinated with a country's key education challenges.
for this environment while leaving managemento f Technologyp lanninga nd deployments houldn ot take
services to the private sector. The telecoir -unica- place in isolation from core deliberationsa bout edu-
tions sector is often the first to be privatized- ~. d open cationi mprovemenot verall. Such separationw ill only
to competitioni n line with agreementsr eached with delay the effective deployment of these critical re-
the WorldT radeO rganization( WTO).C hangesi n the sources.
role of the statea lso occurf rom modernizingi ts func-
tions throught he adoptiono f new and improvedm an- Organized experimentation with new technolo-
agement systems, technology, and decentralization. gies in small or pilot programs is critical to help-
The state still lacks efficiencya nd credibilityi n many ing countries assess the best designs for their cir-
countriesb ecause of mismanagemenat nd corruption. cumstances. Ongoing projects should be carefully
Such corruption underminest he social and moral fi- studiedw ith evidence-gatherintge chniquesa nd analy-
ber of societies and exacts a high toll on the poor. ses to guided ecisionst hat must be made. Systematic
Technologya nd modernizatione fforts can help bring programst o gain experiencew ith and understando f
the needed transparencyt o State administrationb ut the processes required to incorporate technologies
will require a different set of skills than are being should be part of overall plans and efforts. Proce-
producedb y many educationals ystems in LAC. dures for gainings ystematicu nderstandingo f what is
successfuln eed to accompanys uch efforts.
The preparation of teachers and the profession
of teaching will need to change to address chronic In light of the enorrnouslye xpandedc ontent avail-
problems of education in the region, as well as to ablet hrought he Interneta nd the worldw idew eb,c are-
help the education system meet the challenges of the ful attention should be paid to the balance between
information age. Today teachers in Latin America of- acquisition of content material and software ;nat
ten have little educationt hemselves,i n basics skills has been created elsewhere, with incentivest o de-
and the area eir studentsw ill need to master in the velop country or region-specificc ontent.
future. Con .erable experience from around the
world confirms tha. .Lhnology cannot replace teach- As telecommunications infrastructure is created,
ers; and quality of education improves when the tech- there should be coordination between private sec-
nologies are effectivelyc ombinedw ith skilled teach- tor support and educational needs; education
ers. One key strategy for technology investment,e s- should be a primary and not secondary beneficiary.
pecially given limitedr esources,i s to focus the uses Becausee ducationale quityi s so criticalt o a country's
of availablet echnologyo n the professionald evelop- future,a nd is unlikelyt o be addressedb y simplem ar-
ment of teachers. Thep rofessiont ypically has been ket mechanisms,i nvestigationo f unintendedi nequi-
isolated, with relatively little development beyond ties and planning for remedies is needed from the
initial training (which can be quite minimal),a nd al- outset.
most no accesst o new ideaso r materials.T o improve
the quality of education in the long term, the problem Effective deployment of technologies requires co-
4 TheW orldB ankH: DNEDE: ducatioann dT echnologTye am
ordinated policies and implementation strategies often ad hoc in nature. (e.g., Argentina,B razil,
to address several key factors simultaneously, in- Colombia).
cluding: investmenti n hardware and infrastructure,
professionapl reparationa nd ongoingd evelopmento f (4) Using technologyt o address educationale quity
educators,c reationo f reliable technicals upport sys- issues (e.g., Costa Rica, Chile, Jamaica,
tems, curriculum,a nd materialsd evelopment/deploy- Mexico).
ment.
The investment of a substantial part of the tech- (5) Using broadcast technologies--radio, television,
nology budget in sustained professional develop- and more recently computer access networking-
ment is critical. In addition,e arly investmenti n the -to developa nd deliveri mprovede ducationacl on-
institutionst hat prepare teacherst o use technologies tent and pedagogy, especiallyt o learners in re-
well can result in considerables avings in the long mote areas (e.g., Bolivia, DominicanR epublic,
term. Thesei nstitutionsc an also be redesignedt o pro- Honduras,V enezuela,B razil,M exico)
vide effective support to schools in their region as
technologies are deployed.D istance learning tech- (6) Focusing technology investment on preparing
nologies can be a cost-effectivei nitial investment o secondarys chool students or school leaders for
improve the knowledgea nd practice of teachers. technology-basedjo bs. (e.g., Costa Rica, Uru-
guay,B razil)
The use of information and telecommunications
technologies to expand and enhance distance learn- (7) Creating new kinds of schools built aroundt ech-
ing options in secondary and higher education is nologies as their core education delivery sys-
one of the most promising arenas for immediate de- tem, such as Telesecundaria (e.g.. Mexico) and
ployment. Effectived esign needs to consideri ssues distance-learning-basedh igher education (e.g.,
of infrastructurea nd content, but also of the social Universityo f the West Indies).
dynamics of on-line courses, faculty development,
certificationa nd fnancing challenges.* The followingc hapterh ighlightst he development
of educationalt echnologya pplications in a number
In LAC some countriesh ave begun to incorporate of countriesi n LAC as a preludet o discussingi nvest-
elementso fthese guidelinesa t then ationall evelw hile ment choices (chapter III), telecommunicationsa s-
others are experimentingw ith applicationsi n a vari- pects (chapterI V), the developmento f nationals trat-
ety of contexts. egies that incorporatet he guidelineso utlineda bove
(chapterV ),a nd WorldB ank's currenta nd futures up-
Education TechnologyS trategiesU sed in LAC port.
There are several strategies that countries in the
LAC region have employedt o incorporatet echnol-
ogy into education. Some countriesh ave used more
than one approach. Exampleso f these strategiesa re:
(1) Developing a national or regional plan for coun-
try-wided eploymento f technologies( e.g., Bar-
bados, CostaR ica, Chile)
(2) Implementing experimental projects using tech-
nologies to gain experiencea nd knowledgef or
eventualc ountry-wided eployment (e.g., Chile,
Jamaica,M exico,P araguay).
(3) Undertakinga  varietyo f small-scalep rojectst hat
use technologies to meet regional or local ob -
jectives or as demonstration projects. These See alsoL uis Osin, 1998.C omputersin  Educttion in De-
projectst end to be independento f eacho ther and velopingC ountries:W hyandHow,E ducationa ndT echnol-
ogy Senes,V ol 3, No. 1. TheW orldB anl
LatinA mericaa nd the Caribbean:E ducationa nd Technologya t the Crossroads 5
i:  ,,
.~~~  ~   ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ -
Chapter II
Technology Use in LAC Education Systems
Background tives usually feature one or more of these elements
in their design. The interactivitya nd engaged-peda-
In general,t echnologiesh ave been used in LAC to gogy approachest ypify more recent projects.
address two overall goals: to improve accesst o ba-
sic, secondarya nd higher educationt hroughoutt he Expanded Educational Materials
populations;a nd to improvet he quality of education
throughoutt he system. Technologyu se in education Technologiesc an be used to transmite nrichedm a-
in LAC variesw idely.M ost countriesh ave consider- terial throughb roadcastm edia (radioa nd television),
able experiencew ith educationalt elevisiona nd radio as well as more flexible distributionc hannels (cas-
dating back to at least the 1960s or 1970s. Radio, settes, internet,a nd web) that allows teacherst o cus-
television, video, and more recently computersa nd tomize its use.
networkingm eet educationalo bjectivest hrougha  va-
riety of means. The collectivee xperienceso f the re- LatinA mericah as a history of experimentationa nd
gion with these technologiesa re an importantk nowl- success in radio education. Many countries in the
edge resourcea s countriesp lan future programsa nd regionu se correspondencea nd radio educationt o im-
investments prove basic skills and life-adaptations kills of rural
and urbanp oor-using technologyt o reach the popu-
Most countries have initiated projects using the lation segments that have most difficulty accessing
newer technologies. Only a few, however,h ave sub- education services. Governmentsa nd the Catholic
stantial experiencew ith computersa nd connectivity Church comprise the main sponsors ol these pro-
in the educations ector. While there are many inno- grams,w hich have grown impressivelyin  Colombia,
vative educationp rojects and applicationso f technol- Mexico,A rgentina,B razil,G uatemalaa, nd CostaR ica.
ogy underwayi n LAC,m ost countriesa re only begin- Correspondencea nd radio educationc ontinue to be
ning to develop a strategicv ision for introducingt he popular,r adio,i n particular,h as beenu sed extensively
informationt echnologiesa s part of systematici nvest- in classroomsi n Nicaragua, the DominicanR epub-
ment programs. lic, and Venezuela.
Improving primary and secondary education Broadcastt elevision also has been used to extend
quality educational opportunities, especially to adults and
childreni n remote rural areas; however,t elevisioni s
Technologiesa ppliedi n primarya nd secondarye du- now beingd eployedp rimarilyt o improvet eachere du-
cation are frequentlyu sed to improve quality of in- cation (e.g., Brazil's Salto para o Futuro (see sub-
structionb y supportingt eachersa nd caregiversI. n this section on "ProfessionalD evelopmento f Teachers"
regard, technologiesh ave been used to support pri- below).
mary and secondary students' education in three
complementaryw ays: expandede ducational mate- Radioa nd televisiona lso are being used to provide
rials; interactivity;a nd enhancedp edagogy. Initia- educationi n new curriculara reas or to approacht ra-
6 TheW orldB ankH: DNEDE: ducatioann dT echnologTye am
Jugando en eLPIDI (Projecto Integrald e Desarrollo Infantil), in Bolivia, uses the unique qualities of
radi 3 create active learning environments in small, home-based child-care centers (called pidis)
thro out the country. The pidis took care of children's physical well being while their parents worked
but provided little mental stimulation. Most pidis were run by women who often had no more than two
years of schooling. As a small pilot project, Jugando en el PIDI began broadcasting a program about a
PID]. At 20-minute intervals, the radio characters, children, and caregivers play games, do learning
activities, and sing songs. One of the characters, Tia Clara, also explains to the caregivers why certain
activities are important for the young children and how children grow and develop. Jugando en el PIDI
not only provides stimulating age-appropriate activity but functions as professional development for the
caregivers so they can continue to support the children's development. Another essential element of
Jugando en el PIDI is that it is radio not TV, which means the children can be up and active while
listening to the program, but watching caregivers and other children, instead of focused on a TV screen.
ditional subjects in new and dramatic ways. Many worksheets, posters, stories, and curricular ac Jes
countries in LAC are using radio effectively for to accompany these programs. The teacher can also
teaching core subierts, among them Venezuela, the decide how much material to use; and, since the
Dominican Repub d Honduras. supplementary material is optional, the programs can
still be used independently. For these reasons pro-
There are other ... eresting teaching applications. gramming is often suitable for learners outside the
Ecuador, for example, is experimenting with a radio formal educational system.
program on conflict resolution that uses storytelling
as a pedagogical tool. Students and teachers are asked Both old and new technologies play vital roles in
to suggest ways to resolve the conflict between char- providing improved curricula by either raising the
acters. Costa Rica is using radio for teaching English qualiy of available educational materials or bl £
language. For early childhood education the older fering new content areas. Some countries hav, ,-
technologies of TV and radio are still the most im- veloped educational television stations that distrib-
portan media to create active learning environments ute programming on science, art, history, language,
for young children. Radio projects like Bolivia's and other core areas. The growing distribution of
Jugando en el PlDI (see .above)h ave rapidly improved VCR's has provided more flexibility, since teachers
the quality of daycare. A radio is relatively easy to can stop the video to discuss a specific point or to
introduce into preschool. TV programming for young conduct an experiment.
children has the v 'L -ial drawback of being quite
costly; moreove Tective with young viewers, Multimedia also is a useful way to create and dis-
TV programs r very polished look, since it tribute a wide range of materials. Of particular inter-
must compete with commercial progrmming. est are multimedia applications for cultural, artistic
ethnographic, and historic material. Early in the de-
Radio and television programs are now available on velopment of multimedia, Mexico produced a pro-
cassettr This gives teachers more freedom over when gram using the vast collections of the Museo Nacional
medi aterials are used. Many projects create deAntropologia. The Spanish-language web site Arte
The .- Latino Web site (http:/Iwww.arte-latino.coml) in the Dominican Republic is a Spanish-
language ^nce site with brief informative entries on Latin American music, art, literaturc and
poetry. I. ite contains biographies of famous composers, painters, and writers, including images or
texts of their work. Arte Latino also provides information on important genres in the history of Latin
American Art. Pagina de Lengua Espahos;.. (http://www.latintop.com/espannoll) is a web-based
resource on grammar and the us- 3f the language designed for native speakers. It contains
.;tionaries, grammatical guides, coii.,es, tutorials, and links to other sites that also help students learn
aoout their language.
LatinA mericaa nd the Caribbean:E ducationa nd 'X-chnologyat  the Crossroads 7
Latino is another exampleo f this type. tool for teachersb ecause of its flexibilityi n adapting
to different levels of education and trainingp lus ac-
The Internet also has substantiallye nriched cur- commodatinga vailabler esources.
ricula by connectings tudentsa nd teacherst o on-line Earlyr adio programmingw as intendedt o compen-
libraries, art collections,c omprehensived atabases, sate for inadequatet eacher training by limiting the
legal documents,n ewspapers,o r historicala rchives. teacher's involvementa nd controllingh er participa-
LAC countriesn ow use networkingt o create and dis- tion. Traditionalp edagogicals trategieslsi ke lectures
tribute local materials. and repetitionw erec ommonplaceT. oday's programs
encouragei nteractiona mong students, teachers, and
Libraries now provide access on-linet o resources the communitya t large. They often use dramatization
previouslyu navailablet o most users. The Libraryo f of real-life situations to connect students to larger
Congress in the US has digitizedv ast amountso f its issues covering a variety of content areas. Radio
photographya nd primary collectionsa nd made them projects also now use a two-audiencea pproacht hat
availableo vert he Internet. TheB ibliothequeN ational provides in-serviret rainingt o teacherst hat contrib-
in Franceh as made numerousw orks of Frenchl itera- utes to their professionald evelopment. In fact, pro-
ture availableo ver the Interneta s well. In fact, liter- grams like CostaR ica's Econautasp rovides learning
ary classics in most major languagesa re now avail- experiencesa nd educationalc ontent in unique ways
able over the Internet for free downloading.I n Latin that no other technologyc an deliver.
America,s omec ountriesa re beginningt o follows uit.
Escola Futura, in Sao Paolo, Brazil, has created a In many countries,c hildrenl iving in remote rural
virtuall ibrary,a nd Argentinai s planninga  DigitalL i- areas lack accesst o the full range of courseworko f-
brary that will contain digitizedm ateriala ccessible fered their peers in more populated areas, particu-
by intranetwithint he library,t hrougha  widern etwork larlyi n developingc ountries,w here basic infrastruc-
of 24 Centros de Documentatci6n, and over the ture services are rare. Mexico's Telesecundarta pro-
Internet. A section of the library is specificallyf or gram uses satelliteb roadcastst,e achers,a nd textbooks
schools, with the project goal to create a networko f to reach over 700,000s eventh,e ighth,a nd ninth grad-
700 secondarys chool librariesc onnectedt o the digi- ers all over Mexico.T het argetp opulationi s students
tal library. in rural areas with population densities too low to
support a traditionalh igh school. Launched in the
Interactivity: Students, teachers, caregivers 1960s, Telesecundaria now covers 11,300 schools,
each with at leastt hree rooms,t hree teachers,a nd an
Technologiesa re used not only to transmite duca- average of 20 students. Studentsw atch a 15-minute
tion contentb ut also to providei nteractivityb etween TV program,f ollowedb y a 35-minuted iscussionf a-
learners,e ducators,a nd caregiversu sing technology- cilitated by the three teachers. The program has
basedm aterials.A  prime examplei s interactiver adio worked so well that the Mexicang overnmenti s plan-
instruction( IRI), which evolved into an educational ning to expand it to cover the entires ix yearso f sec-
Econautas:M isi6nN aturalezai s a CostaR ican radio (as well as cassette)e ducationp rograma bout the
environmentg eared to fourth graders. One of the goals of the Econauts programi s to supportt eachersi n
the introductiono f a new subject, environmentalism.A s a new content area, Costa Rica's teachers had
littlet raining in the topic and few materials;t he radio programw as designedt o fill this gap. But the project
staff also decidedi t was importantt o promote studentp articipation.T he programc onsistso f 28 chapterso f
a complexs tory. Each chapterp resentsa n environmentapl roblemf or the studentst o solve, and the overall
story helps to maintain student interest and to introduced iscussion of environmentale thics. The program
is designedt o supportc lassroomd iscussion,s tudentc ollaborationa nd problem-solvingb y invitings tudents
to debate issues and solutions, send in advice to the characters, or dramatize scenes from the story.
Teachersa lso can do other activitiesa rounds pecifice nviromnentatlh emes. As presented,t he programd oes
not offer single-answers olutions. The innovativep edagogy behind the Econauts program was initially
difficult for teachers who had no experiencew ith student-centeredl earning. Althoughp roject staff had
produced support materialsa nd modela ctivities for the program,t hey also provideds ystemicp rofessional
development o help teachersc hanget heir classroomp ractice.
8 The WorldB ank:H DNED:E ducationa ndT echnologyT eam
Telesecundaria is a junior secondary-school program structured around Atellite broadcasts and
special classrooms or learning centers, where one specially-trained teacher works ;l,,th a group of students
in all standard high school curricula. Much of the success of Telesecundaria lies in the sophisticated
design of an entire educational system built around television support materials, and a few well-trained
personnel, providing both well-designed education media and effective support for teachers to provide
learning interactions around these core resources. Only 20 students are needed to create a Telesecundaria.
One teacher works with the same group of students for the entire year. The schoc -ay is divided into 50-
minute periods and each period covers a different subject. Telesecundaria broaccasts three 17-minute
content pieces (each piece aimed at a separate grade) that the teacher and students work on for the rest of
the period. The content support provided over television allows the same teacher to cover each subject
with the depth required in secondary school.
ondary school. learning from universitie; ad private companies has
grown dramatically in recent years propelled by the
Correspondence schools, universities, and educa- Internet and the increasing demand for higher educa-
tional broadcasting companies from the United States, tion and professional development in LAC co-untries.
Canada, Latin America, and elsewhere currently of- Engaged Pedagogy
fer distance learning courses encompassing techni-
cal, professional, and general interest subjects that Technology projects can promote student-centered
permit interactivity by learners. To date, most learning through enriched curicula and exploit net-
interactivity takes the form of correspondence with work and Internet capabilities to expand student en-
faculty or tutors. Increasingly, interactivity through gagement in learning, i.e., engaged pedagogy. Many
the Internet is being explored. Distance education technologies can support educational activities when
providers include the Virtual University of the the educational goal is to transform the learning e..-
Monterrey Institute of Technology and many others vironment into a more dynamic leaming situation.
(see Table 3). Also, externally-provided distance Projects like Costa Rica's Computers in Education
Conexiones in Antioquia, Colombia, employs the newer teaching strategies by placing more
responsibility on students to become actively engaged in learning through experimentation and problem-
solving. Antioquian children use technology to learn about the environment and to think like scientists by
conducting their own research for Conexiones' biodiversity project. Conexiones started in 1993 as a
research project at the University in Anti6quia. It was based on the use of informatics as a learning tool for
primary and secondary schools (ages 8 to 14).
Initially Enlaces in Chile served as the model; however, the staff soon realized they had to adapt
Chile's approach to the Colombian context, and to take full advantage of Colombia's unique natural
envirornent. Typically technologies need to be shaped by local educational goals, needs, and
characteristics. Changes required by Conexiones' adaptation of Chile's Enlaces model were:
(i) The teacher-training component was modified for Colombian national curriculum requirements.
(ii) Collaborative projects were redesigned so that children worked only with students within
Colombia and not internationally.
(iii) Colombia's unique bio-diversity was used for educational purposes by incorporating local
environmental and ecological projects into the curiculum.
(iv) Networking strategies differed from Enlaces, in that the Chilean project provided the hardware; in
Colombia each school had to acquire its own hardware, with most schools having only one or two
machines
(v) Conexiones and Enlaces differ in the metaphorical representation of the project. Instead of the
Plaza, like Enlaces, the central metaphor for Conexiones is La Pachamama, a Quechua word that means
Mother Earth. Pachamama is a planet accessible through the Internet
LatinA mericaa nd the Caribbean:E ducationa nd Technologya t the Crossroads 9
Program,s upportedb y the Ministryo f Educationa nd
the OmarD engoF oundation,h as since 1988,b een at Thea vailabilitoyf  softwarei n Spanishl hasb eenp rob.
the forefronti n using computerst o stimulatec reativ- lematic. Softwaret itles have increaseda s have web
ity, cognitive skills and collaborative work using sites. A comprehensivea nnotatedl istingo f software,
Logowriter programming software. The program web sites and other educationalm aterialsa vailablei n
reaches yearly 30 percent of the total elementary Spanishh asb een compiledb y the Centrod e Recursos
school populationa nd is present in all regions of the Educativos at the Universidad de la Frontera in
country. Logo is also beingu sed in Brazil,C hile and Temuco, established with support from the World
other LAC countries. Other project objectivesh ave Bank. Thel istingi s availablea t: www.enlaces.ufro.cl/
been to rekindlet eachers'i nterestsi n teachinga nd to Recursos.T he market for educationals oftwareg en-
provides tudentsw ith new learninge nvironmentsa nd erallyh as not been large enough to supporta  viable
opportunities. educationm aterialsi ndustryi n mostc ountries. Thus,
many education projects use combinationso f soft-
Softwarea nd multimediaa lso offer curriculume n- ware produced elsewhere (e.g., applicatione nviron-
richment in an engaged-learningf ormat. Such soft- mentst hat can be producedm uchm ore efficientlyo n
ware enabless tudentst o edit eacho ther's reports and a transnationalb asis),a nd some locally-c reatedc on-
to apply their knowledgeo f grammar,r eading com- tent material (e.g., the Aztlan program). The Web,
prehension,a nalyticals kills, and diplomacya s they however,o ffersa  new opportunityt o make localc on-
correcta nd discuss each paper. Also, studentss eem tent materiald igitallya vailablef or relativelyl ow cost.
to work harder on the first draft,a s they realize it will (A selected list of educational web sites in Latin
be judged by a classmate. Basic productivityt ools Americai s providedi n AnnexI V)
(e.g., word processing, database, spreadsheet, and
graphicsp ackages)h ave proven effectivei n second- TheI ntemet and networkingt echnologiesc an have
ary school computerization programs in Puebla, a profoundi mpact on enhancingt he qualityo f educa-
Mexico. Theset ypeso f productivityt ools also equip tion in LatinA merica. In additiont o providingb asic
students with an apprehension of the basic skills accesst o enrichedm aterialsf or teachersand students,
needed in many futurew ork environments. the Interneta nd electronicm ail can enhancel earning
by interconnectings tudentsa crosst heir country,s tu-
Computers imulationsc an be valuablet oolsa s well. dents in other countries,a nd to scientistsw orldwide.
TheA ztlanp rogram,f or example,w hich is produced Or, the Internet can be used to connect studentsi n
in Brazil,o ffers a decision-makingsi mulationm odel collaborative,c ross-nationala ctivities, such as sci-
that teaches studentst o weigh alternatives.T he pro- ence or writing projects,a nd cultural exchanges.
gram was developeda t SENAC-SPa nd simulatest he
governing of a province. Students make decisions The Enlaces project originally was a sub-compo-
aboutp lanting,h arvesting,f oodd istribution,a nd land nent of Chile's Primary Education Imrprovement
acquisitioni n changingc ontexts,s uch as burgeoning Project( MECE),b eguni n 1991;h owever,i n 1994,i t
populationg rowth,w ar,d rought,a nd rebellion.T eams becamea  part of Chile's secondarye ducationr eform
of studentsd ebate eachm ove, make preliminaryc al- project as well. This learningn etworkl inks the pri-
culations,a nd considerp ossibles hort- and long-term mary and secondarys chools that compriseda  pilot
consequencesT. heir choices are enteredi nto the pro- project in Santiago and the southern region of
gram, which then simulatest he passageo f time, in- Araucania.I ts success caused it to grow much faster
formingt he studentso f progressm ade based on their than originallye nvisaged. The target of 100 schools
decisions.T he softwarep romotesc ollaborativele arn- by 1997 was surpassed as early as 1995, with 180
inga nd providesa ctivitiesf or integratingc ontentf rom schoolsw ired. The project was well receivedw ithin
history,p olitics, and sociology. Chile's educationalc ommunity.E nlacesp rojects taff
In Argentina, Nueva Alejandria is an independent Internet site that offers teachers curriculum
support and on-line activitiesf or many subjects. Some programsl ink-up with schools in Argentinat o
encourage students from different regions, backgrounds, and neighborhoods to interact. Nueva
Alejandria also helps schoolsl ink-up with schools in other countries.O n-line and classrooma ctivities
about peace, conflict resolution, and tolerance are provided. On-line activities can be performed
individuallyo r by the entire class. Teachers' guides and activities are providedt hat require no on-line
component. Nuvea Alejandria can be found at http://www.nalejandria.com/index.htm
10 TheW orldB ankH: DNEDE:d ucatioann dT echnologTye am
comment that what is most noteworthyi s the teach- Transition
ers' impatiencef or change, not their resistance to it
(see Potashnik, 1996a) Preparing secondarys tudents for and readily con-
necting them to future workplacesi s a major issue in
In the LAC reg: n, four countries- Brazil, Chile, developing countries. School-to-workc oncerns are
Paraguay,a nd Per .re currentlyp articipatingi n the often related to preoccupations about competitive-
WorldL inksf or Development( WorLD),a n initiative ness that extendt hroughoutt he Caribbeana nd Latin
of the World Bank's Econonr DevelopmentI nsti- Americanr egion. They are intrinsicallyr elated to the
tute (EDI) aimed at creating .- line learning com- perceivedn eed to improvet he quality of educationa t
munities of teachers and students in secondary all levels. Achievinga nd sustainingc ompetitiveness
schools. WorLDh as developeda  trainingm anuala nd requiresm ore than just equippinga  subset of students
CD-Romf or the training of teachersi n the use of the with marketables kills. Studentsw ill . ed both con-
Internet, includingt he preparationo f web pages for ceptual ability as well as a deeper understandinga nd
their schools. For exampleso f these web pagess ee: familiarityw ith theoreticala nd applied science and
web sites for each country can be found at the fol- technology.
lowingU RLs:
Brazil:h ttp://www.enlaces.org.br, The CostaR ican Ministryo f Education( MIOE)in -
Chile: http://www.enlaces.cl/-wlink/ troduced productivity software--sucha s word-pro-
Paraguay:h ttp://www.senl.edu.mx/paraguanyd,  cessing, spreadsheets,a nd administratives kills-into
Peru: http://www.minedu.gob.pe/Segundo.htm secondary schools.T here were two long-temrg oals:
The WorLDP rogram is expectedt o yield lessonso n to provide studentsw ith the means to write and cal-
Intemetu se and fosteri ntegrativea pplicationso f tech- culate more proficiently; and to introduce some
nologies in the classroom. simple computer applications into the network of
small, family-runb usinesses-from mechanic shops
The interactivityp rovidedb y the Intemet and the to corner stores to farms-which comprise most of
web openst he possibilityo f changingt raditionalp eda- the economica ctivityo f the country. The idea is that
gogical models,w hich is now being contemplatedi n studentsc an begin to improvet he efficiency of their
many educations ystems.T he Interneta lso represents families' business activities with the use of some-
a powerful tool for improvinga ccess to and raising thing as simplea s a spreadsheeto  track sales or stock.
the quality of educational resources, unconstrained
by geographicald istance. English languagef acility is considereda n asset in
the globalm arketplace Colombiai s now ey- -iment-
Computer-AssistedI nstruction ing with the use of computerst o provide Ei h lan-
guage instruction to students enrolle- the
Several LAC countries-such as Jamaica,M exico, bachilleratot ecnico stream to prepare ther the
and Grenada-have been experimentingw ith the use new labor market requirements.
of Computer-assisteIdn stuction (CAI)a nd Integrated
Learning Systems( ILS) to tutor studentsi n basic lit- The use of computerization is focused on high
eracya nd numeracys kills. In CAIt he computerp ro- schools in some countries. For example, the some
vides text and multiple-choiceq uestionso r problems believe that it is better to introduce informaticsd ur-
to students, gives an immediater esponse to the an- ing adolescences ince these skills are learned more
swers given,s ummarizess tudents' perfonnance,a nd rapidlyt han by small children,a nd the and the transi-
generatese xercisesf or worksheetsa nd tests. In ILS, tion from school to work is closer. An additionalr a-
computersa re networkeda nd equippedw ith software tionale is that since software changes so rapidly, if
that providesa  set of sequentiall essons,a s prescribed studentsl earn applicationsn ear the end of secondary
by the built-inm anagements ystem,w hich tracks in- school, they will be more likely to reflect the actual
dividuals tudentp rogress. These systemsh ave been work environment hey will enter. Softwarea pplica-
used widely in the United States, Israel, and other tions for younger children often have no direct cor-
countries,m ainly to provide remedial language and respondencet o the workplaceb ut instea- useda s a
mathematics instruction.* stimulust o learning.
Upper Secondary Education: School-to-Work * For a positive assessmento f the Lsraelie xperiencew ith
CAI see Osin, 1998.
LatinA mericaa nd the Caribbean:E ducationa nd Technologya t the Crossroads 11
The pedagogyb ehind Telecurso2 000 restso n four
Two LAC countries-Brazil and Costa Rica-be- foundations:( I) Instructioni n Context--studenttsa ke
lieve the infornation industry is at the heart of their courses at their workplace; (2) Contextualizationo f
economic future.B razil is committedt o develop its Instruction--allm aterial is related to students' real-
own high technology industry. Thus, programs are life situations;( 3) Basic Tools-each lesson is about
being designedt o disseminatec omputersi nto schools key tools and abilities;( 4) CitizenA wareness--thei n-
across the countrys o that computationalt echnology structional content promotes civic consciousness.
becomes an integral aspect of leaming at all educa- Telecurso2 000 is distributedo ver broadcastT V and
tional levels. The private sector is also playing an currently carried on Rede Globo,R ede Brazil, Rede
importantr ole. Intelh as made substantiali nvestment Vida,a nd TV Futura.
in Costa Rica, which is a reflectiono f this country's
concemt o developi ts youngw orkforcea ppropriately Higher, Continuing,a nd ProfessionalE ducation
in the formno f developing the capacityf or growtho f
high technologyi ndustries. Access. Higher education institutionsi n LAC face
challengess imilar to other countries:t ransformations
In addition, as telecommunicationsin frastructure to a global economy,a n emerging informationa ge,
becomes more widespread in the region, Internet- and shifts towards life-long learning. In developing
based connectionsw ill begin to support needs for countriest hese challengesa re manifold: more de-
specificj ob-related knowledget hrough on-linec on- mand for access, calls from the public and private
nectionsa nd apprenticeshipsD. istancel earningt ech- sector to improvet he qualitya nd relevanceo f higher
nologies are being used (and supported)b y the pri- education,a nd the searchb y highere ducationa dmin-
vate sectort o provide workert raining.F or example, istrators for better financial managementp ractices
in Mexico, Telesecundariais  moving into the work- and new definitionso f productivityi n the wakeo f ris-
place to help workersw ho dropped out of school to ing costs and reducedp ublic financing.
complete their education.
Responset o the growingd emandf or accessb y more
Mexicoi s also confrontinga  need to modifyv oca- diverse studentp opulationsh as led to: (a) new forms
tionalt echnicalt rainingt o meet competitives tandards of highere ducation,o ften directedt o meet labor mar-
for full participationi n NAFTA. To meet this chal- ket requirements;( b) many new private universities;
lenge, Mexico is developing competencys tandards and (c) growth and expansiono f distancee ducation
in conjunctionw itht he private sectora s a framework programsu sing telecommunicationasn d emergingi n-
for assessing and licensingi n technicalf ields.T hree formationt echnologies.
vocational school networks will develop pilot cur-
riculai ncorporatingn ew standards,w hich then would Until recently, telecommunicationsa id informa-
be appliedt o all technicalf ields. The new vocational tion technologiesp layed only a minor role in tradi-
programsa re intendedt o train studentsf or work not tional highere ducationi nstitutionsa nd their continu-
only in emergingt echnology fields but more tradi- ing educationp rograms. This profilei s changingr ap-
tional ones as well. idly as the potential of technologiest o promote ac-
cess,q uality,a nd productivityo n abroad scale comes
Brazil, with its Telecurso2 000, a televisedd istance into sharper focus. Such contributionsi nclude in-
education program, is filling a variety of training creasinga ccesst o highere ducationt hroughn ew strat-
needs. Its originalf unctionw as to help the nearly4 0 egies and institutionalf orms,i nvigoratingq ualitya nd
million illiterate/semi-literataed ultsw ho are already access to learningr esources,a nd reducingc osts for
in the workforcea nd wouldh ave difficultym odemiz- the delivery of higher educations ervices. Planning
ing their own skills and adapting themselvest o the and funancingi nvestmentsi n infrastructure,f aculty
demands of a new economy because of their inad- development,a nd certificationa re central to realiz-
equate early schooling. The courses, developedb y ing the potential of new technologiesi n higher edu-
the RobertoM arifihoF oundation,a re notr eplacement cation institutionsi n LAC.
courses for standards econdary school material, but
specificallyf ocusedo n workplace skills for a semi- Meeting demand. Latin American and Caribbean
literate audience. countriesi ncreasedh igher educatione nrollmentss ig-
nificantlyd uring the past quarterc entury;h owever,
12 The WorldB ank:H DNED:E ducationa nd TechmologTye am
Higher Education Gross Enrollment 1980-1994
45.
50
o20 
y 15 
-5
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
1980P ateo f Erollment
Source:T he WorldB ank
this expansionw as slowert han in other regions. For liminaryi ndicationss uggestt hat the demand for in-
example, in 1980 Mexico and Korea had similar novativef orns of higher education is outpacingt hat
higher education enrollmentr ates (14.3 percent and for traditional" on-campus"o fferings.
14.7 percent, respectively);b ut 14 years later Korea
tripled its higher educatione nrollment( 47.7 percent), If LAC countriesa re going to meet the challenge
while Mexico's rates stagnated (see table 2). Simi- of increasinga ccess to higher education,a s well as
larly, Cuba, Greece, and Irelandh ad comparablee n- accommodatingth e demandso f non-traditionale arn-
rollment rates in 1980; however,o ver the same pe- ers for technology-relatede ducation,p oliciess hould
riod (1990-94), Cuba's rate declinedb y 3.4 percent be adopted and programs developedt hat would en-
by 1994, while Greece and Ireland increased their courage more efficiencya nd productivity,a ccompa-
enrollmentr ates by 19 percent. nied by strategic investmentst o enable higher edu-
cationi nstitutionst o reach the expandingl earnerb ase.
The pressure for higher and continuinge ducation One of the most promisinga nd economicalm eanst o
in many Latin Americanc ountries continued to in- achievet his is through distance education.
crease during the 1990s reflecting demographic
trends; the growtho f primary and secondarye nroll- Varieties of Distance Education Programs. Dis-
ments; and new and greatere mploymenta nd income tance educationf ormats in higher educationb egan to
opportunitiesf or skilledp rofessionalsa nd technically appear in the LAC region in the 1940s and 1950s-
competentw orkers. Currentd emand for higher edu- although . nsiderablee volutionh as occurredi n pro-
cation now also reflects strong interest of the adult gram types and use of instructionalt ec' -'niogy.I n the
population, whose learningn eeds and interests can- mid-1970s a number of countries - , region es-
not be met by traditionala cademicp rogramso f higher tablished distance educationp rogrwL., generally of
educationi nstitutions. New higher educationi nstitu- two maint ypes: open and dual-mode.O pen universi-
tions have evolvedi n LACt o meett he demandb y non- ties-modeled after the successfulB ritish Open Uni-
traditional learners,a s elsewherei n the world; how- versity and other Europeanv ariants-have been dedi-
ever, they are not yet capturedb y availabled ata. Pre- cated exclusivelyt o deliveringu niversitv-levelp, ost-
The Universityo f the West Indies (UWI)D istanceE ducationC entre (DEC) works with facultieso f UWI
located on three campuses-in Barbados,J amaica,a nd Trinidad & T-1 ago-to develop and deliver programs
by distancet o service the learning communityt hroughout the Car =anD. EC uses a variety of distance
teaching methodologies: self-study print materials supported by audio and video cassettes, face-to-face
tutorial sessions, interactivea udio-graphict eleconferences,a nd computera ssistedl earningp ackages,e -mail,
and world-wide-web.
LatinA merica ndt heC aribbeanE: ducatioann dT echnologayt  theC rossroads 13
The TeleLearningN etwork of Centers of Excellence (TL.NCE), founded in 1995, is a national
collaborationa mong Canadianr esearchersa nd organizationsi nvolvedi n the developmenta nd application
of advancede ducationt echnologies.T he aim of the networki s to bring togetherl eadersw ho share a vision
and interesti n giving Canada a competitivee dge in the developmento f new learningt echnologies. The
principal goal is to develop telelearning as an environment that will provide students with access to
learning experiencesn ot available or achievablei n conventionalc lassrooms. To achieve this goal, the
TL-NCE brings together computer-supportede nvironments, artificial intelligence, high-performance
networks, multimedia, and collaborativet ools to form coherent systems. They are used to support
advanced pedagogies such as knowledgeb uilding and collaborativel earning. These developmentsa re
expected to extend access and bring quality educationt o all citizens, regardlesso f their location,a ge or
status. TL*NCE brings together over 130 researchersf rom 30 Canadianu niversitiesw ho are presently
involvedi n 56 researchp rojects acrosss event hemes.
graduate, and continuinge ducationc ourses at a dis- be well over one million. It is not possiblet o capture
tance. They were pioneeredi n CostaR ica, Colombia, fully ther apid enrollmentg rowthi n newd istancee du-
Venezuela,a nd Chile,w hichh ave adopteda  model of cation institutions-sucha s the Virtual UJniversitoyf 
distance education based on multimedia instruction- the Instituto Tecnologico de Estudios Superiores de
-combiningp rint, tutorials, audio and video record- Monterrey( ITESM)--becausoe f the tendlencyo f such
ings, and other media. Dual-modei nstitutionsc om- programs to expand on their own, coupled with the
bine traditionala nd distance courses and are more absence of systematicd ata-gathering.
frequentlye ncounteredi n the region in the context Teachinga nd LearningO n-line.I n nearly all LAC
of courses in applied fields, such as basic education, countries, higher education institutions are experi-
preschool education,b usinessa dministrationp, ublic mentingw ith alternativet eachinga nd learningp ara-
administration,a nd agriculture. digms, which have implicationsf or technology use.
Many involve experimentingw ith the Internet and
Currently,t here are no official statistics available adoptingn ew forms of distancel eaming.I n somei n-
on distancee ducationp rograms.U nofficiale stimates stitutions,l ike Instituto Technologicod e Monterrey
of these prograrnsf or LAC countriest hat show sig- Virtual University,s tudent satisfactionw ith on-line
nificant coverage of studentsa nd program areas are courses is higher than in traditionalc lassrooms( in-
listed in the table below. Data in Table 3 show that terestingly,g rade-pointa veragesa nd other measures
enrollments in these types of programs total about of student achievementa re the same or better), and
750,000 students. If programsu nder developmenti n there is generallym ore interactionb etween students
Chile and other countriesw ere added,t he total would and instructors.A  number of on-line teaching-and-
Table 3: Distance Education Programs in Latin America
Country Number of Student Programs Educational
Institutions Population Using ICT Programs
Mexico 51 200,000 4 UndergraduateG, raduate,
Vocational,C ontinuing,
Secondary, Basic
Costa Rica 2 15,000 1 Undergraduate,G raduate,
Continuing
Colombia 37 150,000 Undergraduate,G raduate
Vocational,M ilitary,
Secondary, Basic
Venezuela 5 100,000 3 Undergraduate,G raduate
Vocational, Continuing Basic
Brazil 85 250,000 8 UndergraduateG, racluate,
Vocational,C ontinuing,
Secondary
Argentina 23 46,000 3 UndergraduateG, raduate,
I Continuing, Secondary
Source:F abio Chacon( 1997)," DistanceE ducationi n LatinA merica: Growtha nd Maturity."
14 TheW orldB ankH: DNEDE:d ucatioann dT echnologTye am
In Chile the Universidad de la Frontera in Temuco, where Enlaces has its main year masters program
and a 17-monthd iplomap rogram.B oth modalitiesa re for experiencedt eachers.T hese prograrns,h owever,
require the participant spend an extendedp eriod of timneo n leave from teachingw hile they study. The
one exceptioni s that ma studies can be done on-line,b ut the distancec ourse requires that the student
have accesst o e-maila  bheI nternet
learning applications are used by higher education the private sector and is df -eloping a range of
institutionst o create new kinds of distance learning Internet-relatedc onsulting services.
options for Latin Americe udents:
* Networks--Argentinias  creatinga  higher education
* The Enriched Modular Package-combines tew- computer ne. ork called Red de Interconexcion
based distancee ducationv  th accesst o remotec ia- Universitaria( RIU), which was launched bv the
tabases, advisory suppor rough E-mail or elec- Ministry of Educationi n 1994. When completed,
tronic lists, web pages, and frequentlye lectronic RIU will have sites in 33 public universities and
libraries. This approach is being used by the enableA rgentineu niversitiest o communicateo ver
Universidad Estatal a Distancia in Costa Rica and the Internet among themselves and with libraries,
by the Sistemad e UniversidadAbierta( SUA),t he research centers, and cultural institutions world-
AutonomousU niversityo f Mexico. wide. The network also will enable university ad-
ministrators to maintain a permanent, up-to-date
* Teleconferencing--delivery of expert lectures databasef or managementa nd policy coordination.
through audio or video communicationd evices, Only a fewu niversitiesn ow have their own Internet
with the possibilityo f student interaction.C onfer- connections. Once RIU is fully operational,a c-
ences are also conductedu sing computers at sub- cess costs to the Internet should be considerably
stantiallyr educedc osts( e.g., ITESM'sV irtualU ni- less for each public university than if it were to
versity and the Universidadd el Vallei n Cali, Co- obtaint his service independently.
Iombia).
Several Latin America and Caribbeanh igher edu-
- Individual multimedia packages--on-line educa- cation institutions have used a proprietary network,
tion, or teaching delivered entirely by means of such as IBM'sG lobal Campus.M ost of the universi-
computern etworking.S ome universitiesi n the re- ties have a large student body and some, like ITESM
cgiioomn patreer  nexxppeet'rwnreknntiennSgio nmgw.e i uthn ivoen -linsei nctooeuu rrssee-s.. in Monterrey,M exico and UniversidadN acionalE x-
Chile's Unive -dad de la Frontera offers to perimental Simon Rodriquez, in Venezuela, have sev-
teachersa n entire 17-months erieso f courses ~ut Neroalt ecsa' mLepaunsiens . GSlopbaacle C aanmd pouthsi esr b suoifl-tw araoruen ald  Lloictuas-
applying educationF technologies. This progNam g Ss
however requires st.:. ients to gain accesst o com- tions,w hichp rovideu niversitiesI nterneta ccess,t ool
puters and the Internet on their own. It is available to design online courses, accesst o digital library
to teachersa nywherei n Chile and outsidet he - sources, and other -basesa nd mobile computn,
try. The Universidad de Sao Paulo, in Braz .o Global Campus ai ables universities to provicie
offers individual classes on-line. Chile's Red students and fac_..y with network access to
UniversitariaN acional (RE.NA), estab.i', d i coursewarea nd educationalm aterialso n rnultimedia
.provLi deSc a- servers. Referredt o as "on-demandl ear- :g,"i t of-
1991b y th onofersa self-paced. flexible approacht o learning that
demic communityw ith high-speedm ultimediaa p- stems from students'b eing able to access informa-
plications in tele-education, tele-medicine, video-
on-demand, and on-line multimedia libraries. onfthroug temetGova Campus inteanets or
REUNA also supportsj oint-researchp rojects with
Most students attending Costa Rica's UniversidadE statal a Distancia are recent secondary school
graduates, heads of households, teachers, workers, farmers, public and private sector employees,
communityl eaders, and businessmen. All have the desiret o improve themselvesb ut would find to difficult
to attend a conventionalu niversity. The universityh as some 28 centers acres s the country.I n the case of
Colombia's Centro Universidad Abierta (Universidad Javeriana), most students are women, teachers, over
30 years old, and married. This illustratesh ow open universitiesi n Latin America are beginningt o open
doors to highere ducationf or many that would otherwisen ot have the opportunity.
LatinAmericaandtheCaribbeEanc : .. fionandTechno theC rossroads 15
ITESM is one of the few universities in the LAC region using modem telecommunications
technologiesa nd computerst o deliver distance education everywherei n the region. Under its five-year
plan, ITESMa ims to double its enrollmentso n its 32 campuses. Originallya  small part of the Instituto
Tecnologico de Monterrey, the Universidad Virtual (UV) has grown into a large institution. The
UniversidadV irtuald e Monterreyn ow has nearly 70,000s tudentsa ll over Mexico and plans to beyond its
borders. The Virtual University has physical space, laboratories, and other educational resources in
Monterrey,b ut also has built 26 academic centers throughout Mexico and in the LAC region. These
campuses provide computing centers for students as well as other educationalr esources, although the
facultyi s in Monterrey.T he UV offers 31 baccalaureate3, 7 masters,a nd 7 doctoralp rograms.
Americac an be found in Brazil,M exico,a nd Venezu- The demandso f the informationa ge are having a
ela. profoundi mpact on higher education.' 'Thev ery na-
ture of informationa nd scholarshipi s changing.A c-
On-line formatsp rovidea  number of benefits,o ne cordingt o Dolencea nd Norris, institutionsa re being
of which is they allow accesst o more studentsw ith- challengedt o provide studentsa nd teachersw ith ac-
out crowdingc lassrooms.T his is because classesa re cess to the variety of networkedr esourcesa vailable
not time-bound;t hus, studentsc an more easilyc om- to them, challengingte acherst o offer integratedv iews
bine work and study becauset hey can "attend"c lass of what traditionallyh ave been specialties,a nd to ex-
when their schedulesp ermit. Also, by increasingd e- pand their connectionsw ith other experts. Further,
mand for classes,u niversitiesc an offer more variety the work world in a fast-changingi nformation age
in classes, with geographic distance not a factor. demandsw orkersw ho can continuallya djustt o new
Merely offering individualc lasses on-line has limi- marketplacea nd knowledger equirements.T he indi-
tationsi n the wayt his formati s usedi n LatinA merica. vidual learnern eeds now extend far beyond familiar
If only occasionalc lasses are offered instead of de- "start-up"c urriculaw ithins pecificd isciplinesH. igher
gree programs,s tudentss till need to be physicallyo n educationi s being calledo n to meet a wide varietyo f
campus for some of their work; therefore,p articipa- learningn eeds: a basic liberal arts approacht o life-
tion is limitedt o those with traditionala ccesst o uni- long learning; high-level (graduate) instructioni n
versities.A lso studentsu sually need their own com- collaborationw ith faculty,r esearchers,a nd problem-
puters. solversi n specializeda reas of knowledge,a; ccomnmo-
dating transitionsi n employmentr esponsibilitiesa; nd
New Directions. Distance learning technologies daily enrichmento f knowledgei n employeet eams.
have created a new set of higher education alterna-
tives beyondr igidf ive-yeara cademicp rogramsT. hese The intellectual,s ocial, and even politicalr amifi-
technologies can also lead to an increasedr ole for cationso f incorporatingt echnology-basedp rograms
private institutionso f higher learning. The push to into teachingm ethodsw ill need to be exploredm ore
expand higher education to reach more students, as fully by the LAC higher educationc ommunity.U ni-
discusseda bove,g reatlyb enefitsf rom Internet-based versities are now investingi n new methods of peda-
access to material, libraries, and international net- gogy, newd eliverys ystems,a nd newa ccesst o knowl-
works of expertise.B eing up-to-datei n disciplinary edge and content.H ighere ducationi nstitutions,w ith
knowledgeh as been a major deterrentt o revitalizing increasinglyl imitedb udgets, will need to find ways
graduatee ducation in the region. to pay for this neww ay of conductingb usiness.I t will
be importantf or administratorst o evaluate their as-
In many countries,g overnmentsh ave usede xisting sumptionsa bout, and measuremento f, productivity
universitiesa s Internetn odest o build a nationalb ack- relative to new technologies,t heir application,a nd
bone (e.g., Colombiaa nd Costa Rica). One of the relative cost.
resultsi s that LatinA mericanf acultyc an now become
part of the increasinglyg lobal intellectualc olloquies Professional Developmento f Teachers
throughI nternet,e xchangeo f papers,a nd on-linec on-
ferences.U niversity students in the region increas- The rapid growtho f the teachingf orce in LAC mir-
ingly access these same activitiest hrough university rors the dramatici ncreasei n schoole nrollment.M any
E-mail and Internet accounts. teachers are underprepareda nd poorly trained as a
consequenceo fthe urgentd emandt o speedt he prepa-
16 The WorldB ank:H DNED:E ducationa nd TechnologyT eam
ration and fill slots. The frequently-e ncounteredi n- Chile and Venezuela are exploringw ays of using
adequatep rofessionalp reparation compromisest he electronict echnologiesa nd distancee ducationp ed'a:
deliveryo f consistent,h igh-qualitye ducation,w hich gogy to deliver most of their in-serviceo fferings to
is the foundationf or implementingn ew methodsa nd teachers. Venezuelam ay need to train up to 10,000
technologies.T echnologiesc an be used to meet this teachers a year for the next 10 years, which is well
need overt he next decade.I n fact,i mprovingt he qual- beyondt he numbert hat the universitiesa re currently
ity of teachers's kills may be one of the most impor- training. In addition, many of Venezuela's current
tant uses of technology.S everal challengesc onfront teachers, especially outside the major metropolitan
LAC countriest hat seek to strengthent heir teachers' areas, do not have universityd egrees. It is cated
corps. that some 60,000 teachers need additiona .urse
work to reach the baccalaureatel evel.
* Accesst o knowledgea boutt eachingm ethods. De- Chile has an adequates upplye nteringt he teaching
signinga nd developings trategiest o use technologies profession. However,a  significantn umber of teach-
to reach teachers in remote locations, who usually ers in Chile (perhaps 20 percent) lack university de-
are neither preparedp edagogicallyn or in the content grees. But by far the greatest challengef acing the
of the curriculuma t their assignedg rades. Ministry of Educationi n Chile is the need for in-ser-
vice teacher education,e speciallyi n the effectiveu se
. Restructuring pre-service education, which must of new technologiesa nd implementationo f curricu-
now prepare teachersf or new contents and peda- lum reforms in math, science, and language. The
gogical techniquesu sing technology. Ministry realizest hat it cannotr ely on tradit nal in-
service approaches to upgrade the skilil. of the
* Preparingb oth practicinga nd candidatet eachersi n country's 129,000t eachers-many of whom teach in
ways to incorporate technologiesi nto their teach- remote areas.
ing, and to understandm ore fully the information-
handling skills their studentsw ill need. Restructuring pre-service education. Important
uses of new technologies in pre-service education
* Accesst o betteri nformationa boutt eaching.M any includea ttemptst o bring actualc lassroome xperience
LAG countriesh ave createdd istancee ducationp ro- into the teacher training institutes using video and
network connectionst hat permit candidatet eachers
grams that use television, video, and networking to view and discuss a variety of practice situations.
technologiest o reach teachers in remote ara. Such programs foster interactionsa mong practitio-
In the Brazilian State of Minas Gerais, an in-ser- ners and focus on local classroom experiencesa nd
vice trainingp roject,P roQualidade,i s attemptingt o practices-withoutb eing intrusiveo r interferingw ith
reach all 90,000 primarys chool teachersu sing video the daily classroomw ork of the teacher.
and printed materialst o teach a new curriculumo f . .
Portuguese and mathematics.T he initial design used Mistry of Educationi n Mexicoi s implement-
group tutoringa nd learningn etworksw ith video pro- igamjri-evc rga,Pormad
grams. Two-hundred-and-fifty facilgitraatmorss. T wwe.rhen dedt a fAecrtsua areli zbaeciniogn uM
 
paggraedsteedr tiharlu,o nudgehr t wrahinicinhg m thanaty u tesaecsh a-
trained,o r a ratio of 350 teachersp er facilitator.S alto combination of text, television broadcasts, and
para o Futuro, another Brazilian effort, was con- . c. .
ceived as a television program zargeted to reach intera . Train delivedat te resourc
80o,0f 0 taetchheeart ic andPortgues in centers. The Direcciond e Actividadesd e Desarrollo
an effort tacimps rove gatheneracllia s poraties. y Medios Audiovisuales in Mexico produces a se-
Because of broadcast conflicts, the program switched neso f TV programos n EDUSATfo r studentteachers
to troad io, wwii. tth  tteextruta-pdsruo p port maternaI andd aa4 400Amai mnint..  ute and teachert rainersa t teachersc olleges. The pro-
introductory vidco This had seri i consequences grams support curriculum and pedagogical reform
whet, the amount of preparation, scripting,a nd pro- through videos of actual classroomp racticesl eading
ducmtiondt iumlecfs o wr a3s0re ducedtojusta to discussiono f the activitiesa nd theoriesb eing prac-
fdeewct mioonn ttihmse. hfors30m. odules as reduced tojust ticed. Participating teachers pick up a "didactic
packet" of textp and video materials from the local
LatinA mericaa nd the Caribbean:E ducationa nd Technologya t the Crossroads 17
In Brasil,T V Escola is a federally-fundede ducationalT V station. TV Escola broadcastso n Channel2  .
as well as throughD irect SatelliteT V. The project recentlyh as completedi nstallingp arabolica ntennasi n
55,000 schools. TV Escola purchasesa nd translatesf oreign-producedp rogramminga nd produces some
original materialf or teacher training. Daily TV Escola occupiesn ine hours of broadcastt ime, with three
hours of programsr epeatedt hree times. The repetitiono f materialp rovidesm ore flexibilityf or teacherst o
either use the programmingo r to videotape it. Before and after this nine hour block, TV Escola allows
other institutionst o use its facilitiest o emitt heir own educationalp rograms.
Centro de Maestros. They then have nine months to who teach in rural areas. In addition,t hese technolo-
prepare for an examinationt o obtain a diploma. Tu- gies provide access to other teachers who have ex-
toring is availablef rom the Centro de Maestros but perimentedw ithn ew approachest,h us providingf eed-
is not required. Thep rogram,l ess than a year old, has back and guidancet o novice teachersa s they attempt
200,000p articipantsa ndh asjust admninisterethde  first new practicesi n their own classrooms.
exam. However,r elativelyl ittle practicale xperience
is incorporatedi nto the program. Second, teaching is one of the most intellectually
challenging, yet isolated professions in the world.
Brazil and Mexico also provide broadcast televi- Oftent eachersp ractice in isolateds choolso r behind
sion-basedp rofessionald evelopmentp rograms. TV the closed door of their classroom,s eldlomd iscuss-
Escola in Brazil and the MexicanS EP broadcastT V ing their experienceso r learning from other practi-
debates, panel discussions,a nd lectures by experts tioners. The teachingp rofessionh as a very underde-
on differenta spectso f education.T hesea re individual velopedp rofessionalc ommunity,b oth in LAC coun-
shows or weekend-long special programming. tries or worldwide. Given the time and locationc on-
Schools and learning centers are open to teachers straints of the profession,a nd the generallyl ow pay,
during broadcasth ours so they can view in groups, technologies offer unique opportunitiest o create a
discuss themes, and contact the studio. Both coun- new kind of dynamicp rofessionalc ommunitya mong
tries use phone-in (or fax or e-mail) portions of the educators. As educatorsg ain access to telecommu-
broadcastt o create interactivity. Both institutesr e- nications,n ew kinds of learningc ommunities,d ata-
port positive responsest o these programsa nd a large bases of materialsa nd ideas,a nd forumsf or exchange
numbero f questionsa nd requestsf or more informa- of professionalk nowledgea re developing. TheL AC
tion regularly arrive from teachers. Both TV Escola region,b othw ithina nd acrossc ountries,w illu ndoubt-
and the Direccion de Actividades de Desarrolloy  edly benefitf rom the invigorationo f the professional
Medios Audiovisuales in Mexico are developing teachingc ommunitya s this kind of activityi s encour-
strategiest o meet teachers' requests for curriculum aged and developed.
supporta nd classrooma ctivitiest o follow the broad-
casts. Teacher training in national plans. Many other
countries in the region are now developingn ational
Preparing teachers to use technologies. Several plans to incorporation technologies. The Enlaces
LAC countriesa re providingp rofessionalt rainingi n project in Chile was designedi n concertw ith coun-
the use the new technologies.T hesep rogramsa re de- trywidee ducationalr eforms, and then adaptedt o the
signed both as face-to-facet raininga nd deliveredu s- evolutiono fthose reforms. Thep rojectw asl aunched
ing various technologiesI. n the long run, as the LAC as a pilot program designedt o use networkingt ech-
region increasest he reach and depth of its telecom- nologiest o reach students in poor, isolated regions
municationsi nfrastructuret, echnologiesc an be used first. The program expanded rapidly to become a
to address two additionalp roblems of the teaching modelf or nationali nfrastructurew itha  strongt eacher
profession. education focus.
First, teachersb enefit from having easy accesst o LikeC hile,P araguayh as begunw ith the designo f a
a varietyo f curriculumm aterialsa nd ideas,a nd to area- pilot programt hat can be tried, revised, studied,a nd
specific content for their own preparation. The adaptedt o developa  nationals trategy.P araguayf aces
Interneta nd web uniquelyp rovider eadya ccesst o such a number of difficulte ducationalc hallenges.P rinci-
enrichment opportunities--especially for teachers pal among these are: retentiono f studentsa nd access
to secondarys chooling; bilingual education( Span-
18 TheW orldB ank:H DNED:E ducationa ndT echmologTye am
ish/Guarani); teacher training, both preservice and
inservice; pedagogical reform; and competition within
Mercosur.
To meet these challenges a Plan Estrategico Para-
guay 2020 was developed. To initiate this process, a
meeting was convened with 280 representatives from
various education stakeholder communities. For its
part, the Ministry of Education concentrated on build-
ing a technology program in the context of the Plan.
This approach was both timely and prudent, in that
pedagogic improvement and not techr..logy integra-
tion and use for its own sake is the dr'i-mg force of
the teacher education refonn.
Teacher training is crucial to the r. ; -cause
the previous curriculum was widely pc .x.v' . to be
weak. To reach teachers in the field, the Ministry es-
tablished CINAPs (Circulos de Autocapacitaci6n
Permanente) in every school. Teachers can -.k help
f -rn a Unidad Pedag6gica Departmental (UPD)
cr ated for every province. UPD staff are trained in
Asunci6n in workshops and then sent to *',- field. A
distance education, inservice teacher-tra -ogram
is also being created with help from the _ Gov-
ernment. Within the new Plan de Estudios, the
teacher training institutes would be reformed to in-
clude technology as an area of knowledge and a teach-
ing tool. Although Internet is not yet in place in the
school system, Paraguay intends to use e-mail and
Internet to connect teachers, which is a part of its
overall strategy.
Fu er, the MOE is promoting a program to in-
volvc private sector in education. Schools in mar-
ginal is are being given technology infrastructure
donate Dy private companies. Private sector involve-
ment is highest in technical education, where there
has been a successfu relationship with the Union de
Indus. 'istas Paraguayas in setting standards, and
designing curriculum. Large multinational corpora-
tions are donating computers to schools as well.
LatinA mericaa nd the Caribbean:E ducationa nd Technologya t the Crossroads 19
Chapter III
Financing Educational Technology
Overview in highere ducation.
Most Latin American governments today spend 4) Computer/Internept ackagesg enerallya ppearm ore
relatively little of their educationb udgetso n educa- financiallyf easiblea t the secondarya nd higher edu-
tionalt echnology,w ith the possiblee xceptiono f Bra- cation levels, in light of what govermnentsc urrently
zil, Chile, Costa Rica and Mexico. However,t his spendp er capita. However,v ariouss chemest hat re-
situation,i s fast changing,a s more and more govern- duce accesst o computers( e.g., using them in librar-
mentsa re eitherp lanningo r alreadyi mplementingn ew ies for researcho n the Internet)c ouldm ake themf ea-
investmnent(so r upscaling smaller previous invest- sible for primary schools,p rovidedr ecurrents ervice
ments) in school computerizationa nd networking, connectionf ees and telephone rates for the Internet
radio instruction,a nd television broadcastingt o re- could be kept low.
mote schools.
5) At the experimentalo r pilot level,s chool comput-
In this chapter,c omparativec osts are examinedo f erizationp rojectsw oulda ppear to be financiallyf ea-
radio, television and computersi n education,d raw- sible for all ministrieso f education,p articularlyw here
ing upon data from Latin America and other coun- budgetary support can be mobilizedf rom external
tries. Focust hen shifts to issueso f affordabilitya nd sources.
equity in an attempt to assess under what circum-
stances these technologiesa re affordablet o govern- Notwithstandingt he growing consensus among
ments with rather meager per-studentb udgets. The policym akersa nd educatorsa s to the benefitso f tech-
main conclusionso f this assessmenta re: nology to education,t here is almost no reliable re-
search anywherei n the developingw orld to demon-
I) Even the poorest countriesc an afford to adopt and strate its cost effectiveness. As a consequence,t his
financiallys ustaint he use of radiot o enhancet he qual- report focuseso n cost and affordabilityi ssues,r ather
ity of instructioni n primary education,e speciallyi n than on cost effectiveness.
rural areas.
Comparative Costs of Educational Technology
2) Televisioni s a costly option for distancee duca-
tion, but offers economieso f scale that can substan- Table 4, provides estimateso f the per capitac osts
tially reduce per capita costs; further, it may be the of different educationalt echnologies. These costs
only way to extend educationt o remote rural areas. were derived from models constructedf or interac-
tive radio instructiona nd for computer instruction,
3) Most countriesa re unablet o afford large-scalen a- using the Internet. They are for a typical middle-in-
tional school computerizationp rograms, involving come LAC country,a nd are based on actual country
computerl aboratoriesa nd regulara ccessf or students data. Internationalp rices, have been constructedt o
and teachers, without increasing or supplementing accountf or inflationa nd technologyc hangesa nd for
educationalb udgets. However,e ven the poorerc oun- judgments as to input levels required for minimum
tries, can afford to adopt computer/Interneptr ograms educationale ffectiveness. The cost modelsf or large
20 TheW orldB ankH: DNEDE:d ucatioann dT echnologTye am
Technology Application Scale i Per-Capita
Radio - Large Distance Learning - Basic Education I million S3.26
Program learners
Radio - Small Distance Learning- Basic Education 100,000 S8.12
Program learners
Computer with Primary or Secondary School 600 students $72.00
Internet - Large Laboratory
School
C;.mputer with Primary or Secondary School 150 students S98.00
Internet - Small Laboratory
Rural School
Television Secondary Education for remote sites 700,000 S500.00-700.00
Broadcast by with populations under 2,500 students
Satellite .
Source:T he WorldB ank, 1998
and small school computerp rojects appear in Annex tal costs. Indeed, technologyp rojects woulc not op-
1, Tables I a and lb. The costs for radio projects in erate at all without significantn on-personnt recur-
large primarys choolsa re providedi n Annex I, Table rent costs --maintenance, telecommunications/
2. The costs for satellitet elevisionw ere derivedf rom Internet services and training-- whereas traditional
rough preliminary and unofficial estimates of costs teacher-classroom programs in some developing
of Mexico's Tesecundaria project. countriesh ave been starvedo f everythingb ut person-
nel compensationa nd still conti--je to operate.
These cost data are generallyc onsistentw ith find-
ings elsewherew hich show that there is an approxi- Economies of Scale
mate tenfold differencei n costsb etweenr adio, com-
puters and satellite televisionb roadcasting. Economies of scale are also important determni-
nants of per capita costs of some distance learning
The aforementionedc ost models in Annex I also technologies. For example,t he economieso f scale
show, rather surprisingly,t hat the per-studentr ecur- are such in IRI that when the cost model is run on a
rent costs of most technology projects are usually smaller program of 100,000 s'ndents, the pe-"znt-
higher t} the annualized investment (including ages of investmnenatn d recurrer. cost per-stuc e
equipmen. zosts. This is not good news for those reversed. As shown in Table 5 investmentc os, or
concemeda bouts ustainingi nvestments.F or example, this smallerp rogram are 63% of per-studenta nnual
in the two modelsf or computerp rojects (large school costs. The chart showst hat still ' "aller programsa re
and small, rural school), investmentc osts constitute
only 27 to 29 percent of total annual costs and recur- _
rent costs 7 to 73p ercent. (And if the cost of money ' . La-lw 
were not ac ounted for, annualized investment cost i&OD
would be even less as a percentageo f the total annual um
cost). In the large-scaler adio project, the recurrent .emD
cost again is 71 percent of total per-student annual -m \ 
cost, with investmentc ost only 29 percent. &OD
LAC country policy-makers and educators may won-
der why recurrent costs are substantiallyh igher than zm
investment costs in these projects. The cost reality g f g 8 8
in such projects is like that of most other educational 8 8 8, , 8
projects: personnel and other recurrent costs particu- d -
lar to technologyp rogramsa re the largest part of to-
Sce: Vd*
LatinA mericaa nd the Caribbean:E ducationa nd Technologya t the Crossroads 21 
even more investment-intensive.I t is the program from a highers ocioeconomicb ackground,t his could
productiona nd broadcastinga spectso f IRI that result be perceiveda s an example of an inequitableu se of
in major economiest o scale. The costs that vary per publicm oney.
student, class, or teacher do not exhibit economies By defnition, pilot projects treat pilot and non-pi-
to scale, but in the smallerp rograms,t hey are over- lot studentsu nequallyI. f wealthieru rbanc hildrenw ere
whelned on a per-studentb asis by the lumpyi nvest- furthera dvantagedb y participationi n a pilotp rogram,
ment costs. an equity problem also could arise; however, this is
somewhatm itigatedb y the programb eing identified
Using a term of general use in distancel earning, as a pilot. On the other hand, if the childreni n the
costs of this type would be designated" learner-sup- pilot were those from poor rural schools, as in the
port activities."F or instance,t he presentationo f uni- Enlaces program in Chile, or in Jamaica's 20/20
versity course materialc ould be transmittedb y satel- Project, the equity problem is mitigated even more.
lite television to thousands of students over many
years. Large economieso f scale thus would result Spendingm ore on some childrent han on others is
from learner-supporta ctivitiesf or such a course; on not always inequitable.S upposet hat providingt ele-
the other hand, face-to-facet utoring in learningc en- vised secondary-leveli nstruction to disadvantaged
ters or interactionw ith a tutor by E-mail,f or instance, rural students costs significantlym ore than provid-
would not exhibits trong economieso f scale. Annex ing conventionals econdaryi nstructiont o studentsi n
I, Table3 , illustratest his conceptf or a numbero f dis- urban and suburbana reas. In this case, an argument
tance-learningt echnologies. could be made that the disadvantagedr ural students
deserve compensatoryf inancet o achieve equal edu-
Computer instruction,i n general,w hetheru sed as cationalo pportunity.T he principleo f equalityi s pre-
learner support for distancee ducationo r as a stand- served,e ven thought he expenditurei s unequal. The
alone instructionalm edium does not exhibit strong case of Mexico's Telesecundariap rogram--which
economieso f scale becausef ew of the costsa re fixed providesl owers econdaryi nstructionb y televisiont o
program costs, which once incurred can be distrib- nearly a million of the country's rural students- has
uted over large numbers of students. Most costs in not received sufficientc ost analysist o make a firm
computeri nstructionapl rogramsv aryp er student,w ith cost comparisonw ith conventionals econdaryi nstruc-
fixed costs being mainlyt he set-up costs of the com- tion. However,a  preliminarya ccountingo f all pro-
puter lab and compensationo f laboratorys taff.W hen gram productiona nd satellitet ransmission,a nd other
a second lab is establishedt o a second 100 or 1,000 inputs, suggestst hat the program is more expensive
students,y ou have to make the investmenta gain. The than conventionali nstruction.M oreover,i t may cost
economieso f scale that exist depend mainly on the 36 percent more per student to provide computer/
size of the computerl ab. Our'cost model for a large Internet instructioni n a small rural school than in a
school of 600 students, with two contact hours per large urbano ne, as in the cost modelsp resenteda bove,
student per week, for instance,r equires a lab or 22 but it does not violate equity considerations.
computers,w ith an estimateda nnualc ost of $72 per
student( AnnexI , Table I a). Thec ostm odelf or a small Affordability and Financial Sustainability
rural school of 150 students (with an electric con-
nection)r equires a lab of six computersa nd costs an One the many issues facing ministries of educa-
estimated$ 98 per student with the same amount of tion in the LAC regiont oday is how-not whether-to
studentc ontact( AnnexI , Table Ib). Thus,e conomies fund the introductiono f computers in schools, and
of scale are modest. on what scale. With supporta t executivel evels of
governmenta nd the educationm inistry,t he funds to
Equity Concerns and Costs cover a pilot educationalt echnologyp rogramt o ben-
efit selected schools usually can be found, particu-
Equity concerns surface when affordabilityi s an larly when donors also provide support. But for the
issue. Even if computer labs are not affordablef or programt o be extendede quitablyt o all studentsa t a
every school, a governmentm ight be able to afford given level,i t must be affordablew ithint he resources
computersf or a minority of schoolsa nd students. if allocated to that level or must win resources from
these favored studentsw ere those attendings elected other levels or other budget categories.
academich igh schools,w hose studentst end to come
22 TheW orldB ankH: DNEDE:d ucatioann dT echnologTye an
Xpflmavy 210
.Secondary
0 H1 9 her educ.
cUpat.,. W -
L.'e. Sh..iw 0)SS 72.0
P.Oht. Ilhie .| 
.. P,, . Ia a. "usa 
R.df. - L.,p. Pep.p. VJSS 3.3
I B.,. st .
To obta an estimate - f the affordability of radio is $14; the $8.12 cost of the small-scale program
computers, and satelli.t television instruction to would consume 60 percent of it. The cost of the small-
countries in the LAC region, the estimated costs of scale program would, however, easily fit into the dis-
these technologies were r mpared to a rough mea- cretionary spending of most upper-middle-income
sure of discretionary spS ng for a sample of LAC countries.
countries for which data ae available. A threshold The situation is much less favorable for the com-
of 20 percent for per-student expenditure was used puter/Internet programsas shown in the cost thresh-
asa.apro-forma upper boundary for discretionary olds above. The $72 cost per student for large schools
spending. (The calculations appear in Annex I, Table would exceed the generous pro-forma measure of dis-
4.) In reality, it would diff At to approach this thresh- cretionary spending for most countries at both the
old for any new educational program. Table 6 below, primary and secondary levels.' Only Mexico and
shows what educational technology could be pur- Costa Rica from the Latin American sample would
chased with this 20 percent Ciscretionary amount at have discretionary expenditure exceeding this, and
the primary, secondary, and higher education levels. only at the secondary level. For the other LAC co-
tries in the sample, only a large increase in the edu
Conclusions tion budget, a major reallocation or funds among ex-
penditure categories within education, or a much less
Table 6 illustrates that the cost of the large-scale expensive computer/Internet program would permit
IRI program could fit comfortably into the primary funding for all students at the primary and seconda-
education budgets of most large countries. For ex- I ,- ls. If only some students were funded, the pr
ample, $3.26 would fit into-Mexico's per-student k nm would generate serious equity issues.
indicator of discretionary primary-level spending of
$59 (see Table 3). Note, however, that $3.26 wo i The position of higher education, including teacher
constitute a large percentage of China's per stuW education, is quite different. Using the measure
discretionary spending at the primary level of $5. The discretionary spending per student of 20 percent
$8.12 per-student cost of the small-scale IRI program but one of the countries in the sample would qua'
(which does not benefit from the economies of scale -even the low-income countries would be ab,i
of the large one) is less affordable. Its per-student cover the $72 per-student cost of the computer/
cost of $8.12 would exceed the per-student discre- Internet program. Distance learning using computers
tionary budget of some low-income countries and and the Internet can be considered straightforwardly
take a -ignificant portion of many lower-middle-in-
come c - tnriesF. or instance, the per-student discre- If the mL. of schoolsw ere 33 percentl arge schoolsw ith
tionary allocation for Guatemala at the primary level 600 studentsa nd 50 percents malls choolsw ith 150 students,
the averagew ouldb e $77 per student.
LatinA mericaa nd the Caribbean:E ducationa nd Technologya t the Crossroads 23
withinc urrentb udgetp arametersi n the case of higher
education.T he equity case for providinga ll students
with computer/Interneat ccess is also less strong in
higher education. Virtually any academica reas can
benefit from Interneta ccess, but arguablys ome sci-
entific, mathematical,a nd business-relateds ubjects
and pre-servicet eachert raining could claimp riority.
Costr ecoveryw oulda lso be more applicableto  higher
education.
What possibilitiesa re there for radically reducing
the cost and thus increasingt he affordabilityo f com-
puter/Intemet programs? Reductions in computer
costs, training, and salaries for laboratoryp ersonnel
are feasibleu nders ome scenariosa nd shouldb e con-
sidered to adjust the affordabilityo bservationso b-
tained in this report.F or example,s choolsc an begin
to use computersi n the libraryr ather than in the class-
room, making them available for research on the
Internet and similar educational purposes. Where
there are too few computerst o give all studentsr ou-
tine access (i.e., two hours per week), schoolsc ould
limit computeru se by grade,e speciallya t the primary
level.
An importantc onclusiono f the analysis is that in
the budgetc ontexto f countriesi n LAC,p rogramst hat
require large per-studentf unding relative to current
allocations will be difficult to fully fund for more
than a minorityo f students,a nd, if funded,e venm ore
difficultt o be financiallys ustained.
24 The WorldB ank:H DNEDE:d ucationa ndT echnologyT eam
.1
U: -
t,D ,'.
Chapter IV
Telecommunication Issues
Background LAC region are expected to grow, as several coun-
tries are now making investrnents to acquire substan-
In LAC, a well-developed telecommunications tial numbers of computers for schools (e.g., Brazil).
infrastructure is emerging compared to elsewhere in
the world (see Tables 7 and 8, below). LAC is second The development of telecommunications as part
only to Eastern and Central Europe in terms of per of the computational environment has changed the
capita investment in technology infrastructure. How- potential of new technologies to address education
ever, there is a substantial gap between urban and ru- problems. In the 1980s, most attention focused solely
ral sectors in such investment, which could intensify on the distribution and use of stand-alone computers;
current system-wide educational inequities. Such however, during the 1990s attention shifted to the de-
resources covering infrastructure and current costs velopment of infrastructure to support computer net-
ideally should be affordable to all and wireless appli- works. This means that the state of development of
cations. telecommunications infrastructure in LAC countries
will be critical in planning for education uses of tech-
Coordinated planning for primary and secondary nology by countries and in the region generally as dis-
education use will become critical as telecommuni- cussed below.
cations technologies and connectivity capacities are
deployed to meet business, private sector and univer- Telecommunications Infrastructure
sity needs. Pilot and demonstration projects with the
networked technologies will be needed in LAC coun- The LAC region, as observed, compares favor-
tries; however, experience from developed regions ably to the rest of the developing world rint erms of
can be used to guide this deployment and avoid short- the availability of basic telecommunications infra-
comings of earlier efforts. structure. As shown in Table 7, LAC's average of 8.7
lines/100 inhabitants ranks second only to Eastern
The installed base of personal computers in LAC, Europe's 16.9 linesllOO inhabitants.
although expanding, lags that of the developed world.
Reliable numbers are available for 1995, and the in- Similarly, in terms of the average number of ra-
stalled base undoubtedly has grown in most countries. dio and TV receivers (Table 8), the LAC countries
According to The 8th Annual Computer Industry with 32.6 and 22.4 receivers per 100 inhabitants, re-
Almanac, 1995, Chile (25.9 computers per 1,000 spectively, is second only to ECA in media service
people in 1995), Argentina (26.2), Mexico (27.4), density.
Venezuela (28.9) have relatively higher numbers of
computers in the region. Colombia (19.1), Peru (18), The gap in services between urban and rural ar-
and Brazil (15.1) have relatively lower numbers of eas-which it is by no means insignificant-is not as
machines. These data can be compared to 364.7 per- large in Latin America as in other regions. In LAC,
sonal computers per 1,000 people in the United States the residents of the largest city are provided with 2.4
with 201.6 in Switzerland, 97.9 in Taiwan, and 47.7 in times as many telephone lines as those who reside in
the Czech Republic, respectively. The numbers in the the rest of the country. By comparison, this gap is as
LatinA mericaa ndt he Caribbean:E ducationa nd Technologya t theC rossroads 25
-~ ~~~~~aei -
[CI;7Ca;D d  51.4 i150.8 45.0 1. 21.1
; __ 4.4 4. 90.8 
E<19 x.s * i -S -- Y
ECA and i17.2 3 160 1 0 3623
lAC 167 37 7.0 1.9 20.
a1. 9 22. 2. 01
0.9  1.2 IH- 5.7 0.1
Source:I nternational TelecommunicationUs nion, "Worid DevelopmentR eport," Geneva,
1997
Icgi (includeirnagd io1 T0C able TVph Satellite TV
c vECDa nd Otherl 117h.2ig h-14.5 3.61
AFR_ ---. 1 3.5 O.D 0.03
EAP 17.9 22.3 2.8 0_13
ECA 34.2 30.2 33 331
1 - -~~~~~~32,6- 22.4 .r0.36
MNA 24A 1430..s2
SAS 10.9 5.0 . 01
Source: IntemationalT elecommanicationUs nion, "World DevelopmentR eporic"G eneva,
1997.
Sargea s 6.8 tis6esi n South Asia atn d .Wtime es in Af- Reliability of telephone lines can vary signifi-
rica. cantly fiom counstyt o country, e.g., from about ev-
ovry1 00 telephone main lines experiencing 5 line
Therei s considers p riationa song LAC coun- faults to as much as 133 faults per year, and from 5
tries in Teledensitcy a t ne availabilityo f television percent to 55 percent of local calls attemptedb eifsg
and radio receivers (An neIxI , Tables I and 2 high- unsuccessful.
light the variance). The variance in the urban-rural gap
is also significant.W hile it is as little as 1.1 times in Obtainingt elephones ervicei s expensivei n many
St. Lucia, it is 16.5 times in Guatemala. Whermb e countries. The initial fee for a subscribedt elephone
gap is large, countriesf ace a dilemma.R ural schools connectionc osts hundreds of dollars in many coun-
often lag urban schools in avaiiability of well-trained tries (Annex II, Table 3). Monthly fees can be as high
teachers and subject specialists, as well as access to as USS40 in Belize (residential) or US$30 in Argen-
useful educationalm aterials and information. Tele- tina. Furthermore,u nhike the United States,w here
communicationst echnology may be able to narrow unlimitedl ocal calls are permittedf rom a subscribed
this gap by supporting distance training of teachers, line with a fixed monthly fee, there are fees for indi-
making useful information available both to teachers vidual local calls in addition to the monthly s-?hscrip-
and students. Unfortunately, such potential may be tion fee (USS0.06 and USS1930 per three- -nute
difficult to expilot due to poorer telecormmunications call). These costs represent arelatively high >-icent-
minfastructurei n rural areas. age of personal income, which in LAC could be an
26 Ilbe WorldB ank:H DNED:E ducationa ndT echnologyT eals
Table 9:
Trends in Annual TelecommunicationsI nvestment by Region (US$ million)
~RI~eiQ99io1tY~tI i~4 92 ~I`3_f0494~ r-4[1995W1V^f99 _2O000i,
[OECD and Otherl 10094 10 2850  0,18d 129,28
AFR 1,035 1,393 1,7271 1,431 1,622i 2,917
EAP 6,734i 8,763 13,074 14,84^ 20,776 348,47E
China 1,61A 2,947 7,015J 7,921 11,912 301,76
EAPw /o China 5,11d 5,817 6,063 6,921 8,85 4671
ECA 4,546 4,175 6733' 4,354 5,747 51,204
LAC 9 53J0 9,424 10,872 11,77 11,024 39,200
MNA 1,571 1,691 1,62 t 685 1,80e 21,52
SAS 1,814 2,196 2,29~ 2,824 2,5724 29,72
Yl 996-2000: Projected Five-Year Total (not yearly average) I_I
Source:I nternational TelecommunicationUs nion, "World DevelopmentR eport,"G eneva, 1997
obstacle for school systems who wish to use tele- by Brazil (US$21 billion), Mexico (US$11 billion)
commnunicatiosnesr vicesA s in the UnitedS tates,r em- and Argentina( US$9b illion) duringt he 1991-95p e-
ediesc ouldt ake the form of speciallyn egotiatedr ates riod (AnnexI I, Table5 ). On a per-capitab asis, Carib-
for the educations ector. beanc ountriesw ith smallerp opulationsw eref ar more
Telecommunications Investments aggressivet han LatinA mericanc ountries( Annex II,
Table6 ).
The state of telecommunicationsi nfrastructure The Internet
in LAC could changed ramaticallyq uicklyr esulting
in improveds erviceq uality and accessibilitya s well TheI nterneth as growne xponentiallyin  the LAC
as cost reduction. Most of the countriesi n LAC have region, as in other parts of the world during the de-
either privatized or are in the process of privatizing cade. By end 1995, there were some 200 Internet
telecommunicationss ervices. Recent studies show hosts for every I million people in the region, com-
that privatizationh as a number ofp ositive effects( see pared with only 2 hosts per million three years ear-
Telecommunications Sector Reform in Latin lier. However,i n relative terms, LAC still had con-
America, World Bank DiscussionP aper, forthcom- siderablyl ess hosts per million populationt han the
ing). countrieso f Eastern and CentralE urope (ECA)a nd
of the OECD,a lthoughm ore than in Africa, Asiaa nd
Duringt he 1991-95p eriod, LAC as a region in- the MiddleE ast. (Table 10).
vested nearly USS53 billion in telecommunications
(Table9 ). LAC investmenti s secondt o EAP'sU S$64 In LAC, Chile,w ith 632, had the largestn umber
billion (of which, China accountsf or US$31b illion). of hosts perm illionp opulationa mongt he largerc oun-
The correspondingf igure in AFR was short of US$3 tries, followed by Brazil's 124 and Mexico's 150.
billion.O n a per-capitab asis,L AC sustainedt he high- CostaR ica with 439, Uruguayw ith 346 and some of
est level of investment( US$25.89i n 1994,U S$23.60 the Caribbeanc ountries,e .g. the Bahamasw ith 989,
in 1995)w ithint he developingw orld duringt he same had a relativelyl arge number of hosts per million as
period, more than twice as much as the secondh igh- well. (AnnexI I, Table7 ).
est ECA (US$8.95i n 1994;U S$11.76i n 1995 (An-
nex II, Table 4). During the period of 1996-2000, Internet Access and Cost Issues for Education
LAC is expectedt o maintaint he same levelo f invest-
ment or to decline slightly, while EAP and ECA are Intemet access costs are still high in most LAC
expectedt o be far more aggressive. WithinL AC, the countries,a lthoughp ricesh ave come down dramati-
largest telecommunicationsi nvestmentsw ere made cally owing to the increase in competition among
InternetS erviceP roviders( ISP).F or urbanu sers,m ost
ISPs offer a flat-ratep ricing scheme.H owever,r ural
and suburban users are forced to pay for relatively
LatinA merica ndt heC aribbeanE: ducatioann dT echnologaytt he Crossroads 27
600
500
400 t t1992 0 95
0
0
40.0 46 2
100 4.
Chile Medco Brazil Ecuador
Source: International Telecommunications Union, "World Development Report," Geneva, 1997
costly long-distance calls. In addition to relatively With $29.8 billion worth of connectivity in the
costly services, residents in Latin America and the sky, and computer-chip prices falling daily, the op-
Caribbean often need to pay for local calls on a per- portunities for rural connectivity via satellite look
r basis. There is less competition among ISPs bright for schools in Latin America.
- ialler economies and low-income economies,
and as a result, residents of those economies cannot While costs for Intemet connectivity will con-
take advantage of the Internet very easily. Internet tinue to decline, particularly for urban schools, they
access fees for selected LAC countries as of-are are still expensive for most schools today. As noted
provided in (Annex II, 8) in the previous chapters, schools face three major
hurdles to Internet access: recurrent cost of connec-
In many countries, the cost of the Internet for tions, equipment cost, and adequate training re-
end-users could be even lower. As the supply of in- sources. Equipping schools to connect to the Internet
temational data communications capacity expands, the and cope with high recurrent costs of maintaining this
marginal price for additional capacity should continue connection represents one of the greatest challenges
to decline. For instance, George Gilder, the futurist, for many Latin American schools--particularly the
has stated in "Gilder's Law" that international band- poorest.
width will continue to trip- very 12 months. As
international communicatio.- mpanies scramble to The real challenge for school connectivity in LAC
lay transatlantic fiber-optic cables, and wide band- is to .extend the reach of the Internet infrastructure to
width satellite schemes come on-line, the globe will rural areas, specifically to the poorest schools. To-
have abundant data transmission and connectivity ca- day, few options exist for schools in the most remote
pacity. Over the next five years alone, at least US$30 areas to obtain connectivity. Also, few rural schools
billion will be spent to launch some 430 communica- have access to a local ISP. The small rate of return of
tion satellites into orbit--more satellites than have ISPs for rural areas combined with poor telecommu-
been launched to date (Table I1 ). These send-and- nications infrstructure account for their concentra-
receive satellites offer opportunities to provide high tion in the urban areas. For end users Internet access
bandwidth connectivity to people everywhere as never outside ofthe large cities remains an expensive luxury.
before. Factors such as expensive domestic long-distance
calls, lack of technical support from Internet service
28 The WorldB ank:H DNED:E ducationa ndT echnologyT cam
Table 11:
Investments in Satellite Communications
1CompanyM USS -billion - -Technology Type< Yearof
Operatioi
Skybridge 3.9 64 LEOs I GEO 2001
Teledesic 9.0 288 LEOs 2002
Celestri-Motorola 12.9 63 LEOs I GEO 2002
Expressway- 4.0 14 GEOs 2003
Hughes
Total 29.8 429
Source:T he WorldB ank
providers,p oorq ualityt elephonel inesa nd exchanges, couldb e transformneidn to a communityl earningc en-
and limitede nd user trainingc ontributet o the lack of ter in which the public school with Internet access
rural connectivity. would be open to the community for after-school
functions. This would help a rural school meet the
Rural schoolsc urrentlyh ave severalo ptionsf or immediatep roblem of high recurrentc osts for com-
connectivity:t hey can connectt o an ISP through ei- munications.F or example,J amaicah as been extend-
ther a domesticl ong-distancec all or through a wire- ing its use of school-basedc omputerc eniters-which
less option such as radio. A connectiont o an ISP now are being connected to networks-to members
over a domestic long-distancec all is still an expen- of their communities.
sive option for schools. For instance, 30 hours of Options for Reducing Internet Costs
Internet accessf or a school outsideo f Asuncionc an
cost as much as four times more than a school with Therea re severalt echnicala nd policyo ptionsf or
local number access. The radio option also presents reducing Internet costs or charges to schools.
problems. The major drawbackt o radio is the low
bandwidthc onnectivity( maximum9 ,600 bps). Web There are two technical options:a  cache proxy
surfing is out of the questiona t this bandwidth. An- and wirelessc onnectionst o dial-upt he net. Another
other optioni s connectivityv ia satellite. Witha  Di- technicalo ption is a program such as Web Wacker,
rect PC dish, schoolsw ould be able to receive infor- which a teacher can downloade ntirew eb sites onto a
mation via satellitet hroughh igh bandwidthc onnec- hard diskt o be vieweda gain,o ff-line.T hek ey feature
tivity, and then would send informationt hrough ei- of both these options is the ability to save informa-
ther a wirelesso r fixed-lines olution. tion. A cachep roxy-serverc an give schoolsa  viable
technical option. Frequentlya ccessed or pre-down-
One solutiona  numbero f countries( e.g., El Sal- loadedw eb pages can be accessedf rom the server's
vador) are pursuingt o deal with imbalancesb etween cache. The student who accessest his page does so
rural and urban access is the use of "telecenters." A off-line, without dialing out to the net. A wireless
telecentre is a communitya ccesss tructurew here the connectiona llows the school to bypass completely
fusion of telecommunicationsi,n formation,m ultime- the existingt elecommunicationst ructurea nd its in-
dia, and computingf unctions help address a variety herentlyh igh cost. The down side to wireless con-
of communityp roblemsa nd needs. Most telecenters nectivity is the tradeoff betweend istancea nd band-
charge the communitya  nominalf ee to use the facil- width. Wirelesse quipmentc an also be expensivea nd
ity. Supporto f the developmento f telecentersr epre- difficult to maintain.
sents a shift from a concept of universal service to
one of universala ccess. The policy optionsf or reducing recurrentc onnectiv-
ity charges:
For the educations ector, the telecenter concept
LatinA merica ndt heC aribbeanE: ducatioann dT echnologayt theC rossroads 29
* Free installation of direct or leased lines to the
schoolsa nd,w here appropriatew, avingt he monthly
exchange-liner ental costs. This will help schools
get conn fted, but does not addresst he underlying
cost issu. ksomeoneh as to pay telephonec ompany
costs; if not the school, then all other telephone
companys ubscribers);
* A flat-ratec hargef or all schoolsd ialingi nto an ISP
regardless of where they are located. This option
does not put too much excess capacity on the net-
work, whilea llowingt eachersa nd studentst o make
the full use of Internet resources;
* A bulk rate negotiatedb etweent he Ministryo fEdu-
cation and the PTT for all schoolso n the network.
A Ministryo f Educationc oulde venn egotiatea  bulk-
rate Internet connection for the entire education
sector.
This is the time when the telecommunications
industryc an be mosth elpfult o education.M ost com-
paniesi n LAC will be privatizedw ithina  year, includ-
ing Brazil. Industry policies and cost structuresa re
neededf avoringt he incorporationo f technologyi nto
education.I n general,g overnmentss houldn ow focus
on policy rather than operations,t he latter usuallyt he
main emphasis.
In sum, a country with primitive infrastructure
and low rate of investment in telecommunications
shouldn ot plan for substantialI nternet-basedp rofes-
sional developmento r curriculums upport.S imilarly,
a countryt hat -apidlyd eployingr elativelyh igh-end
connectivitys houldc onsiderh ow this can be usedb est
(for example,t o upgradet eachers kills)a nd whatp oli-
cies are needed to encouragea nd suFp ort the appro-
priate infrastructure. Educations hould not have to
pay for the inefficiencies caused by monopolistic
practiceso f ct : nitlyo r formerly owned stated en-
terprises.
30 TheW orldB ankH: DNED:E ducationa ndT echnologyT em
Chapter V
National Strategies for Education Technology Use
Many governmentss tand at the thresholdo f the be awareo f educationald evelopmentsi n technology
twenty-firstc enturyw ithoutc learly-defnedp lansa nd as they come on-streama nd not wait for them to oc-
strategiesa bout the use educationalt echnology-but cur; and (b) buildt he capacityt o pilot any promising
they are makingm ajorn ew investmentsa nyway.E ach educationt echnologya pplications,a cquirea ppropri-
country in LAC will need to prepare its own educa- ate expertise, and develop locally-adapteda pplica-
tionald evelopmentp lan and related investments trat- tions.
egy-but only aftera  carefula ssessmento f basic edu-
cation issuesa nd how technologyc anb e usedt o meet The diversitya mong countriesi n Latin America
national goals and objectives within the planning and the Caribbeanm eans that strategiesw ill differ in
framework. design and resourcer equirements;h ence, countr.s
will need to carefullyw eigh the array of policy deci-
Lessons about the effective incorporation of sions they confronta nd the considert heir respective
technologiesf or educationc an be gleaned from ex- capacitiesto  deployt hese occasionallye xpensivee du-
periencei n LAC as well as from similari nvestments cational resources. This of course depends on the
around the world. This section draws on these les- scope and cost of the technologyu sed.
sons and identifiesg enerici ssuest hat shouldb e con-
sideredw hen developingn ationals trategies.O ptions ExtendingE ducational Opportunities.G overn-
to consideri n the selectiona nd applicationo f educa- mentsn ow facet he challengeo f extendings chooling
tionalt echnologya re then given to meet the key chal- beyondb asic primary (which is usually six years) to
lenge-sid entifiedi n this report for Latin Americaa nd includea n additionalt hree yearso r more. Somec oun-
Caribbean countries;n amnelya, ccess, quality, and rel- tries providec hildrena  basic educationo f nine years
evance. (an extendedp rimary),o r are creatingn ew opportu-
nitiesa t thej unior-secondarayn d upper-secondaryle v-
Developing a National Strategy els. Whichevers ystemi s deployed,g overnmentsa re
encounteringm ajor difficultiesi n providings econd-
National strategiesf or technologyi n education ary education-particularlyf or childreni n remote ru-
can be considereda s encompassingth ree general ar- ral areas, where cost-per-studenti s generallym uch
eas: Education Policy and Goal-setting, Teaching higher due to low teacher-student ratios and a limited
and Learning, and Institutional Development and number of qualified teachers.
Capacity-building.
Enriching the professional skills of teachers
Education Policy and Goal-setting shouldb e considerede quallyw ith directi nstructional
benefits to students from applied technologies.
National and Regional Dimensions. Strategies
for the introductiono f technologyi n educations hould Equity. The possibilitye xists that unless gov-
be linked to existing and planned programsf or edu- ernmentst ake stepst o remedy unequala ccesst o edu-
cation improvement,i dentifyingw here technologies cational technologyi n schools, the gulf betweent he
can make the greatest impact. Countriess hould: (a) wealthy and the poor could widen considerably.I m-
LatinA merican dt heC aribbeanE: ducatioann dT echnologayt theC rossroads 31
provingt he quality of basic educationw ill also mean Higher educationi nstitutions--whethecr onven-
paying attention to achievingm ore equitablea ccess tional distancee ducation or dual- mode--shoulde x:
to educationalo pportunitieso, f whicht echnologyw ill ploit the full potential of computer networks-both
increasingb ecomea n integralp art. the Interneta nd intranets-tod esign and test pedagogi-
cal methodsa nd on-linee nvironmentsd, eliveri ns'-
The most practicalw ay to address this challenge tion and learner-supporteda ctivitiesa t a distanm
is to target various groups of schools. For example, well as to promote administrativee fficiency an..-
someg overnments--suchas  Chile,J amaica,a nd Costa duce costs.
Rica--deliberatelyf ocusedt heir programso n schools
in poor and remote areas. Chile initiallyt argetedi ts There are two cooperativea nd inter-i nstitutional
Enlaces program on the poor children in Temuco. initiativeso utsideL ACt hat successfullyp ursuedt hese
Jamaica's Project 2000 selected clusters primary goalsandshouldbeconsideredasimportantexamples:
schools in remote rural regions. one is the National LearningI nfrastructureI nitiative
(NLII) in the United States; and the other the Tele-
If telecommunicationsi nfrastructure does not LearningN etworko fC en-'rs of Excellencei n Canada.
exist, a possible strategy would be for governments
to undertake investments that target the education Higher education i!tstitutionst hat have not de-
sector's access to the national telecommunications veloped a technologyp lan as part of their overall in-
infrastructure.U ntil such basic infrastruc: -- is pro- stitutionald evelopments trategy should consider do-
vided (which may includee lectricity),s choolsc ould ing so. Technologyp lanningi s neededt o identifyb a-
be at a great disadvantagei n the potential to access sic infrastructurer equirements,h ardware and soft-
the Internet. ware applications,a nd overall investmentp riorities
for teaching, research, administration,a nd commu-
Teaching and Learning nity outreach. Strategies for efficient use of scarce
capacityw ill need to be carefullyp lanned.
Building Basic Education Teaching Capacity.
Countriest ypicallyc annott rain teachersf ast enough Backbonesf or higher educationa nd researchi n-
or well enought o meet demand. Resultso f effortst o stitutes can be created and used by several institu-
upgrade teacher skills have been mixed in the past. tions to share computingf acilities.H igher education
The need to find new ways to do so is acute in the institutionst hat plan to undertaked istanceo r distrib-
region-- especially allowing teachers to remain in uted-leamingw ill need to decide what type of tech-
classrooms while they are learning. On-line courses nologies they will use to deliver instructiona nd to
could be designedt o help teachersa dopt approaches support student leaming.
adaptedt o theiru nique classroome nvironment.T ele-
vision-basedp rojects in both broadcasta nd cassette Facultyd e-opment is another area that should
form also can enable teacherst o observea nd discuss be considered relative to the facultiesa bility to use
new practices. emergingt echnologiesa nd in gauging teaching and
research effectiveness,a longsideo ther measures of
Additionally,d istance learnings trategies, espe- facultyp roductivity.I n addition,n etworkingw ith in-
ciallyt ransnationalo r "twinning,"c an help university temational research prograrmsb enefits faculty and
facultym emberse arn higherd egreesa nd remainc ur- shouldb e encouragedu sing .;aiergingt echnologies.
rent in their fields.
Most LAC highere ducationi nstitutionsc ould be-
Higher and ContinuingE ducation. Telecom- come more involved in the education system as a
munications and information technologiesh ave the whole. One way would be to provide technical and
potential to increasinga ccess, improve quality, and pedagogicals upport for the introductiono f technol-
enhancep roductivityi n highera nd continuinge duca- ogy in primary and secondary education. Another
tion. In preparing national strategies for the use of would be to support the se.r for solutions to na-
technology in education, policy-makersa nd univer- tionale ducationalp roblems..  -ongoingb asis.F ac-
sity officialss hould considert his optiona nd develop ulties of Education are often isolated from faculties
plans and programsf or the short- and medium-term. of communicationso r engineering,w hich have the
knowledgea nd capacityt o use technology. Encour-
32 The WorldB ank: HDNED:E ducationa nd TechnologyT eam
aging a sustaineda nd dynamic collaborationa cross lenge. Many provincesm ay lack the expertise and
professionalf ields and disciplinesc ould improvet he experiencei n project planning, curriculumd evelop-
education sectoro f a country. ment, scheduling,a dministrationa, nd building infra-
structure. Communicationste chnologyc ould play a
Highere ducationi nstitutionsc learlya re uniquely role both throughd istance educationf or administra-
positionedt o providet echnicals upportt o primarya nd tors and plannersa nd as a meanst o developo n-line
secondarys chool technologyp rojects and should be professional communities for administrators,p lan-
encouragedt o do so. Whilet here is not a traditiono f ners,a nd schoolp rincipals.T he Interneta lsod issemi-
such cooperationi n most countries,s uchp artnerships nates large volumes of informationa bout planning,
are beginningt o appear.T he mostw ell-knowni s that curriculuma ctivities,a dministrativete chmiquesp, ric-
created under the Enlaces project in Chile, where ing, and supplies.
higher educationi nstitutionsh ave been contractedt o
providet eacher training, computerm aintenance,a nd Computerizatione ngendersa dministrativee ffi-
other servicest o a group of elementarya nd second- cienciesf or cost controla nd accountability. One of
ary schools in their vicinity. Anothere xamplei s the Mexico's major computeri nitiativesw as the automa-
collaborationb etween the Universidadd e Puebla in tion of its largest single payroll--that of its public
Mexico and Puebla'ss econdarys chools. teachers. Recently,o ne Argentinep rovincec omput-
erized its payroll and discovereda  large number of
Strategiest o createi nstitutionss imilart o "com- teachersw ho were drawings alariesf or moret hat one
munityc olleges" couldb e considereda s well. These teaching assignmentw ith overlapping i(conflicting)
types of institutionsh ave enjoyed dynamica nd rapid hours. Computerizings tudent rosters increasest he
growthi n the United States,g reatlye xpandinge duca- ability to evaluate student progress and assure uni-
tional opportunity beyond secondary school. They versalc overage. At the locall evel,p lanninga ccount-
offers altemativest o completeu niversity education, ing, scheduliiiga, nd relatedt asks can be facilitatedb y
and providea n altemativet o facilitatingtr ansitiona nd computerization.
preparationf romu pper-secondaryto  employmenta nd
eventuallyc ompleteu niversityt raininga nd continu- Data fromt he United Statesa nd Europes uggests
ing education. Many offer technicalt rainingi n com- that training should occupy at least2 0 percentt o 30
puter sciencesa nd other practical degrees.T hey also percent of any connectivityb udget. Trainingi s often
can respond much more quickly to market demand under-funded,a nd yet is a criticala specto f a school's
for new skillst han can otherh ighere ducationi nstitu- connectivityp rogram.V arious models have proven
tions with more traditionala cademicp rograms. successful. Many training programsf ocus on train-
ing of trainers. The key to trainingt rainers is identi-
Institutional Development and Capacity-build- fying a leader from each school who can drive the
ing program forward at the school level. Frequentlya n
individualw ith vision can mounta  campaignt o get a
Decentralizationa nd Administration. Admin- school connecteda nd remainc onnected.A nothera p-
istrative and institutionale fficiency is essential for proach is to focus on support for teams who work
any sounde ducationals ystem.T echnologyc an play a cooperativelya nd receive continuingg uidance-on-
vitalr ole in many countrieso fthe Caribbeana nd Latin line or in person-from mentors as they attemptn ew
America,s ince pedagogicalr eform generallyh as ac- tools and techniques.
companiedd ecentralizationa nd other institutionarl e-
form initiatives. To reduce costs for maintenancea nd technical
support,s econdarys choolsc an becomep artnersw ith
Decentralizationc an lead to increasede ffective- post-secondaryi nstitutions,w heres tudentsm ay have
ness of educations ystems,a s each regioni s empow- the level oft echnicale xpertise,a nd,m ore importantly,
ered to develop policies tailored to the needs of its the time to get a networke stablisheda nd operational.
student population. Decentralizationc ould help in A computer club at a university, for instance, may
the tailoringo f programst o differinge ducationale n- adopt a school and provide monthlyv isits, training,
vironments. and perhapsa  "help line" for the school whent echni-
cal problems arise.
Clearly,d ecentralizationp resents a major chal-
LatinA mericaa nd the Caribbean:E ducationa ndT echnologya t the Crossroads 33
I
I
I
Chapter VI
The World Bank's Current and Future Roles
Overview The Bank's future role will focus on five key pri-
orities:
The World Bank is currently fundinga  total of
47 educationp rojects in 27 countriesi n the LAC re- Priority One: Top rovide technicals upportt o coun-
gion, at a total cost of US$4 billion. Lending for edu- tries in defining sound plans and strategies for in-
cation accounts for about 10 percent of total Bank creasing the effective use of technology in educa-
lending to LAC countries. tion and training systems.
Distancee ducationa nd informationt echnology The Bank will work with client countriesi n de-
componentsi n educationp rojects are increasingr ap- fning sound plans and strategies for incorporating
idly. There are now 25 operations underway in 16 technologyi ntoe ducationa nd trainingt hata re adapted
countries,w ith an additional9  projects in 6 countries to each country'ss ector priorities. Such work would
planned for 1998/99. The Bank's innovativeW orld involveh elpingc ountriest o definea  vision statement
Links for DevelopmentP rogram is operating in four and goalsf or the use oftechnologyi n supporto f over-
countries:B razil,C hile, Paraguaya nd Peru. InfoDev all sector development,a s well as devisinga  plan of
is also supporting a pilot school computerization action for investment in programs and projects to
project in Jamaica.T he total amount of Bank lending achieve sector developmento bjectives.T o this end,
for distance learning and information technology the Bank also planst o issue a technicaln ote on mas-
project componentsi s estimated at nearly US$400 ter planningf or technologyi n educationt o help coun-
million.I nformationp rojectss upportingd istancee du- tries develop well-conceivedp lans and strategies.
cation and technologyi n LAC are listedi n AnnexI II,
Tables I and2. Priority Two: To develop knowledge that helps
countries keep abreast of good practice in the use
The World Bank plans to expand its role in the of technology in the effort to extend access and im-
areas of technology and education, knowledge devel- prove the quality and relevance of educ ation at all
opment, and distancel earning-in line with the goals levels.
of the StrategicC ompact approved by its Board of
Directorsi n 1997. To this end,-ith as taken measures TheB ankw ill help countriest o obtaint imelya nd
to upgrade communicationlsi nks among its field of- relevantk nowledgea nd informationf or the formula-
fices and to buildu p its video-c onferencinga nd com- tion, management,a nd assessmento f educationp ro-
puter-networkingc apabilitiest o handled istancee du- grams and projectsi nvolvingd istancee ducationa nd
cation for client countries and Bank mission staff. technology.T he Bankw ill soon makea vailablet o all
Several Bank offices currentlyh ave the abilityt o ac- countries via the Internet a new online resource of
commodated istancel earningv ia video conferencing knowledge and information on distance learning.
(128kb bandwidth), including:M exico, Haiti, Peru, Knowna s GlobalD istanceL earningN et (URL:h ttp:/
Bolivia,G uatemalaV, enezuelaA, rgentina,C olumbia, /www.globaldistanceleaming.comt/h)i,s  new on-line
and Brazil. Field offices in Ecuador and Paraguay resourcew ill enablep olicy-m akersa ndp rogramm an-
will be added to this list by September1 998. agers to obtain timely and practical informationo n
34 TheW orldB ankH: DNEDE: ducatioann dT echnologTye am
sucht hemesa s teachinga nd learning,t echnologyu se,
and the managementa nd financingo f distancel earn- TheB ank's EducationD evelopmenIt nstitutea nzd
ing projects. the Educationa nd Technology Team in the Human
Development -work,w ill offer trainingc oursesf or
The Bank's Education and TechnologyS eries client countr) .cials on the use of distancee duca-
will continue to focus on knowledge dissemination tion for teacher training. The Bank is also funding
aboutt he applicationo f educationatle chnologies.T he throughI NFODEVa  new researcha nd dissemination
series consists of technical notes intended for edu- program on innovationi n the use of technology in
cationp olicy-makersa nd specialistsa nd coversa  wide teacher education. SeveralL atin Americanc ountries
range of subjects of special interest to LAC coun- involvedi n innovativet eachere ducationp rogramsa re
tries such as: Chile's Learning Network, Training expectedt o participate in the network. Lastly, the
Teachers at a Distance,I nteractiveR adio Instruction, WorldL inksf or DevelopmentP rogramw ill continue
CostA nalysiso f InformationT echnologyP rojects in its training courses on the use of the Internet. The
Education, Chile and Costa Rica. A report on Programh as developedt raining materialst o be used
Mexico's Telesecundariaw ill be issued shortly and in Latin America that have helped teachers acquire
another on the Interneti s under preparation. the capacityt o build their own web pages.
The Information for Development Program Priority Four: To use distance education to help
(infoDev) of the World Bank is supporting initiatives countries improve thei' development effectiveness.
that explore the use of information and conmnunica- The Bank will help countries improve development
tion technologies in development. InfoDev not only effectiveness by building country capacity through
tests ideas but also disseminates lessons learned and distance education for sector staff and other offi-
best practicest o the globalc ommunity. InfoDeva lso cials.
has fundedn umerouse ducation-relateda ctivities. In
LAC, the Jamaica Partnershipf or Technology in The Bank's Education Development Institute
Basic Education is being supported by infoDev. (EDI) is convertingm any of its courses for distance
InfoDev funding also supports further development education delivery to reach more clients across the
of the Jamaica Computer Society Education region. It offers complete courses as well as short
Foundation'sJ amaica2 000 and the EDTECH2 0/20 policy dialogueso n currentt opics,i ncludingp ension
programs,g earedt o improvet he qualityo f education reform and anti-corruption.I n a joint program with
through computeru sage. the Human DevelopmentN etwork's Education and
TechnologyT eam, EDI is also assistingo ther groups
Projectsa re being addedt o infoDev'sw ork pro- in the Bankt o broadent he reach of their trainingp ro-
gram. The NetworkforI nnovationi n Technologya nd grams and support capacity-buildinge fforts through
Teacher Trainingw ill establisha n intemationaln et- the use of distance education. In addition, EDI is
work to facilitatet he exchangeo f knowledgea nd the workingw ith partnero rganizationst hroughoutL AC,
lessons learned of 10 developingc ountries (includ- like MonterreyI nstituteo f Technologya  - the Uni-
ing LAC countries)t hat are developingi nnovativea p- versity of the West Indies to deliver some of the EDI
proachesi n teacher training using computersa nd the courses.S omej oint course developmenti s underway
Internet as a means to enhancet he learningp rocess with thesea nd other institutions.A  scheduleo f policy
in the classroom.P royecto Conexionesi s a Colom- dialoguesi s being created, with the first one a dia-
bian initiative (see Chapter II) that will create and logue on issuesr elated to gender and poverty,w hich
evaluate new leaming environmentsu sing informa- will takep lace April29 betweent he Bank's Washing-
tion and communicationtse chnologiest o improvet he ton Headquartersa nd four resident missions in the
qualitya nd equityo f basice ducationi n urbana nd ru- LAC region.
ral schools.
The World Bank's Resident Missions through-
Priority Three: To conduct training courses and out LAC play importantr oles in the Bank's Distance
build knowledge networks for client country spe- Leaming initiative, in that their interactive classrooms
cialists aimed at building capacity to design and will become important access points for local devel-
manage distance education programs >or teachers opment practitioners. Through the Resident Missions,
professional development. clients also will participate in defining the distance
LatinA merica ndt heC aribb : Educatioann dT echnologayt theC rossroads 35
learning program by suggesting topics, requesting
events and identifying presenters.
Priority Five: To make use of traditional and new
lending instruments to assist LAC countries to fund
distance learning and education technology
projects consistent with their educational goals.
The Bank will use both traditional and new lend-
ing instruments for free-standing educational tech-
nology projects and for distance education or educa-
tional technology components in sector education
projects. Lending for the development of national
capabilities in the critical areas of instructional de-
sign and the adaptation of existing training materials
and educational software will also be a focus.
The Bank has developed two new investment in-
struments that can be used by client countries to fund
innovative distance learning and technology in edu-
cation projects: Learning and Innovation Loans
(LIL) andAdaptable Program Loans (APL). The LELs
can be used for experimenting and piloting initiatives
to determine the best course of action before attempt-
ing larger operations. They are the lending instrument
of choice when a full-scale investment project faces
significant uncertainty because of one component
critical for project success-a component that could
instead be piloted under a Learning and Innovation
Loan. APLs offer more flexibility to Bank clients
than traditional sector investment loans. They con-
sist of a sequence of smaller loans to support phased
imnplementationo f long-term development programs.
The Bank also will adopt measures to enable it to
more quickly respond to requests from client coun-
tries for technical assistance in distance learning and
technology in education projects. One such measure
would be to expand its roster of technical specialists
available on call to countries for short-term advisory
assignments. The Bank has recently allocated an in-
crease in the resources now availableu nder INFODEV,
which is designed to support innovative projects in
informatics and telecommunications.
36 The WorldB ank:H DNEDE: ducationa ndT echnologyT eamn
. .
Annex I:
Cost Tables
Table la: Cost Model of Computer/Internet Instruction in a Large School in
Latin America and the Caribbean
Ftscliiies ComputerRomeovation 15 Contracst I 5 3,000 S 3,OOD 5 394 1
Fuirniwur 10 Set 1 2,500 2,500 407 1
Wiring, Innailation, Testing 10 Unit 1 2,500 2,500 407 1
Contingency&Other 10 2V.ofFscil. I 110 IS 0
Subha Facile 1,110 1,226 3
Equipment Sever, Hub, Network Cards S Unit I 5,500 5,500 1,451 3
Student Computen 5 Unit 20 1,000 20,000 5,276 12
Inuructor/Prodn Computer 5 Unit I 1,700 1,700 44S I
Peripherals 5 Set 1 2,000 2,000 528 1
Air Conditioning 5 Unit 1 500 500 132 0
Telecom Equipment 5 Conputer 22 50 1,100 290 1
Power Equipment 5 Set 1 2,200 2,200 5S0 I
Seirity(Locks, t.) Other 10 Computer 22 50 1,100 179 0
Contingency 5 5%ofEquip. 1 1,650 435 1
SubE-al Eqip-t 35,750 9,320 21
Software Site Licenses Network Software 4 Set 1 2,000 2,000 631 1
Educational (unbundled) 5 Computer 22 50 1,100 290 1
Other (unhundled) 5 Set 1 500 S00 132 0
Training (Upftont) Lab Coord. &Irasucorn 7 Vendor Contract 1 15,000 15,000 3,0S1 7
SabretlSfware an.d Trwa g 18,600 4,134 9
Tra lnvaIsemt S 54,350 S 13,454 31
REMCURENP-
Penonnel Prorted Cluster Suppert Share I S 1,000 S 1,000 2
Lab Coordinator Salaies Annual Salary 1 4,200 4,200 10
Other Pesonnel Services Annfal Aveage 1 5,700 5,700 13
Mintenance Equipment Computer-Year 22 75 1,650 4
Software Computer-Yar 22 30 660 1
Routine Yeaw 1 250 250 1
Inunce & Theft Facilities and Equipment 5h purch. pr.+ Sl,000 1 3,193 3,193 7
Training Lab Coord. & lnstructo Amnial Averge I 10,000 10,000 23
Utilities You 1 500 500 1
Telecommunicis Telephone Year I 2,00 2,000 5
Internet Provider Year 1 500 500 1
Computer Supplies Yeaw 1 2,000 2,000 5
TaaReeamSw S 30,653 69
raw s 44,107 100
* Cost of 20-station computer labomtory estimaed fora  middle income Latin American and Caribben country based on ual
dataf or Chile,J unaica and Belize, adjusted for geaity, technoogy chages and inflatio Internationao equipment pricesawe senally
"Isumed. Where applicable, therefoe, local prtia, import duties and ocaltzes would have to be added.
a- Long-lived trsining, fiAilities and equipment cot are annualized, i.e, presented as average a nu i,
using a 10% dicount ftte and with varying sef lives. Deprw on is included
* Does not include marginau cosu for classoom teachert ime and computer mnm spae, which are umametdo  be z: e r
since the focus ofthe anelsy3is is on affordability rathern eetv-effectivnes. Source: e WorlBd ank
LatinA mericaa nd the Caribbean:E ducationa ndT echnologya t the Crossroads 37
- ~~~~~...................*. ..... 1 
~ ~ .,1 in1 Ni ,f1 Iieiul,. iS -AverageIl ~lnv 1~nulzd
Facilities ComputerRoom_Renovaion 15 Contract I S 1,S00 S 1,S00S 197 1
Fumninlr I10 Set 6 120 S 720 117 1
Wirnng,Installation,T esting I10 Unit I 1,000 S 1,000 163 1
Contingency&Other 10 5%ofFacil. I III 18 0
SubtotaFla  ie 3,331 495 3
Equipment Server, Hub, Network Cards 5 Unit 1 3,500 3,500 923 6
StudentComputers 5 Unit 5 1,000 5 00 1,319 9
lnstructor/ProdCno mputer 5 Unit - - -
Telecom. Equip.(e.g., 5 Computer 6 50 300 79 1
modems)
Peripherals 5 Set 1 700 700 185 1
Air Conditioning 5 Unit - - -
PowerEquipment 5 Computer 6 150 900 237 2
Security (Locks, etc.), Other 10 Computer 6 50 300 49 0
Contingency 5 5% of Equip I 520 137 1
Subtotal Equipment 11,220 2,929 20
Software Site Licenses Network Software 4 Computer 6 100 600 189 1
Educational (unbundied) 5 Computer 6 50 300 79 1
Other (unbundled) 5 Set 1 200 200 53 0
Training (Upfront) # Lead & 0th. Teach, Others 5 Person-hours 300 10 3,000 791 5
Subtotal Seftwa' -e and Trming 4,100 1,113 8
otal Investamen S 15,320 S 4,042 27
RECVRRENT***
Personnel Prorated Cluster Support Annual Share I S 1,000 S 1,000 7
Lead Teacher Add'i Salary Year 1 500 500 3
Other Personnel Services Annual Average 1 500 500 3
Maintenance Equipment Computer 6 150 900 6
Software Computer 6 30 180 I
Routine Year - -
Insurance & Theft Facilities and Equipment 5% Cost 1 72n 728 5
ing # Lab Coord. & Instrctors Hours 480 10 4,800 33
Zs Computer 10 20 200 1
.uommunications Telephone Year 1 1,500 1,500 10
Internet Service Provider Year I S00 800 5
(:-rnputer Supplies Computer 6 100 600 4
TotalRecurrent S 10,708 73
S 14,750 100
* Costs of computer laboratory esimated for a small school in a middle income Latin American and Canbbean country based on actual
data for Chile, Jamaica and Belize, adjusted for generality, technology changes and inflafon. International equipment prices are
generally assumed. Where applicable, therefore, local premia, import duties and local taxes would have to be added.
Long-lived training facilities and equipment costs are annualized, i.e., presented as avage annual costs,
using a 10/ discount rate and with varying useful lives. Depreciation is
included.
*** Does not include marginal costs for classroom teacher time and computer room space, which are assumed to be zero, since the focus of
the analysis is on affordability rather than cost-effectiveness. If extas space is contructed, this should be incl.rded under facilities.
* .aining estimated @ I person trained per 25 students and a per-trainee average of 50 hours of upfront training plus 80 hours per year.
38 The World Bank: HDNED: Education and Technology Tean
Table 2: Costs of IRI Programs in Primary Schools-Typical Large-scale Program
PrgramAssumps--:
lnstuct- Students Stdent- Pftrt g Teas Patitig Sdlools Radb NBmberof Oppnity Uifilof
ins Clams Casses PerClOs  Clsses Nlvast2 SdcoolsP:r Costof Ptgrar
1fgram Ratb 1.1 PerSdioo PadioMarkrt Financ (Years)
I 1,(XX,00U 30 33,333 36,667 4 8,333 50 167 1P/0 8
Amuaio r Nmiber
mestnr.tA mn or Aumhized f AmivJ Anml Am"l
Cost kem tit Anant Amudized Variale twis Variaie Total COt Clut %
Per iit Rxed CkstPer AtGiatn Ot Atwn Per
CmI1 3 it'3 Seale Scale Snturk
hk stnut Out
sa,t Piga 5 D0D) 93,722 1 93,722 93,7Ž2 Q9 3
PtpanPtudUCtiDn PgranO 100Q000 187,444 1 187,444 187,444 Q19 6
PFa t ios,l Ppaatim Rogrn 25Q000 46,861 1 46,861 46,861 Q0Q5 1
Stat4p costs Fred 50QOD0 93,722 93,722 Q0C9 3
(IQKLd 4,Iunt Ptugrn 250,000 46,861 1 46,861 46,861 05 1
Tmring) Cass 75.00 14.06 33,333 468,610 468,610 0.47 14
TotalI nvest1mntC ost/4 5,00400D 93,7Ž2 843,498 937,MO 0.94 29
"utcucst 
AkTmO,ttaradcatsug Radio Madet IQOOO 50 500,00 50QOOO Q50 15
Radios( 3Yearlil) Clss 30 1206 33-33 402,115 402,115 0.40 12
RadioPparandBaies Oas 3.50 33,333 116,667 116,667 Q12 4
Pzdl titterals,Cassetes Student Q150 L°OQ°°° 594,000 500,000 0.50 15
DistXdtiDn of Matfis Studnt (110 I,(XODO,( 1OQOOO 100,000 Q110 3
Training& Tmning Supplks Teadxhr 1Q10 36,67 36667 366,67 037 11
ContiouirgP tuogiamDvel Pat Fond,P at
PerSudant 5,a0o (13 I,OCQQOO 25,000 30,000 QQ(3 1
Adnistve Bqxnse PatFond, Pat
PerStudent 40,000 20 LOCQOD0 204000 24QOOD Q24 7
COherFnodE pense PwtF ied, Pat
PrStudent 5,000 Q(13 L0Q000 25,000 30000 QQ3 1
OQeaVriab1cBpense Cass 1.00 33,333 33,333 33,333 (0 I
TotalRcrntCost 5DOOD 2,268,781 2,318,781 232 71
Total hrtmnteas RerInmT Out 5,00C000A 143,7 3,112,0 32,02 3.26 1QO
Sourm:W oMdB nk
AJBasedn  acrualc osts fian Bdiva,1)xnican RepublicH. ondumsL, escho,S outhA fticaa nd Venzuenlaa djustedf orgemaiky and intlarmt o VW7.
AAirdtrnc ostassumedt oDrebeto te nunberof adiDuadkets.Then un*ero fadiDm ad sassurad rDbebcrseen7a nd m.
B hlwesn utcosts ae annualizeda ccxing tthe clinklue desabted inA ppedix I
Latin America and the Caribbean: Education and Technology at the Crossroads 39
go a I~~ . !~  _ ~, ~~~~, ~~~ 
Panel A
~~~soj. -U~~~~~B~r~o~a~d~c~a~Ts~Vt- -*-Ed. 
3404I
30 - Radio
2X0  A e- PRe-Re,d TV
c 10 _ Audio ettes
0 -.- Print
o O 500 1000 1500 2000
No. of students per year (over 8 years)
Panel B
70-. 
so-P 
0
~50 4- 
3° 40t=40 - I -u--Interactive Lectures
30T  -*-- ~~~~C~o~n~fe~r~e~nc~in~g~~~Video 
10 I- Audio Conferencing
CL. ° - >x_it -- *- I I Computer Conferencing
0 500 1cn0 1500 2000
No.o f studentsp er year (over 8 yearm)
Source: Bates (1995), with axes extended. Data are estimates mainly for the United Kingdom.
Note These graphs are largelyb ased on data from the United Kingdom'sO pen University;t hus the per student
cost estimates are not directly applicable to distance learning pr.igrams in LAC. Panel A shows the strong econo-
mies ts scale of course presentation technologies. Panel B shows the corresponding lack of economies to scale
in leamer support activities.
40 TheW orldB ank:H DNED:E ducationa ndT echnologyT ean
Table 4: Calculations of Potential Discretionary Spending for Technology in Selected
LAC and Other Developing Countries (US$)
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)
Per-Student Per-Student Per-Student Potential Discretioniary
Country GNP Annual Annual Annual Spending =20%ofEixpenditure
Per Public Public Public
Capita Expenditure ExpenditureE xpenditure rrimary: Seconuary: ---- ffrfM
on Primary on Secondary on Higher 20%of 20%of 20%of
Education Education Education Col. (2) Col. (3) Col. (4)
latin Americaa ndt he Canbbean
Guatemala 1,060 66 81 13 16
DominicanR epublic 1,260 36 70 7 14
Paraguay 1,540 121 181 919 24 36 184
Tunisia 204 426 1,390 41 85 278
CostaRica 2,230 235 419 47 84
Chile 3,190 273 238 745 55 48 149
Mexico 3,800 297 517 1,402 59 103 280
Average 2,180 176 276 1,114 35 55 223
Selected OtherD evelopingC ountiies
China 490 27 71 395 5 14 79
Mauritania 500 64 366 1,004 13 73 201
Indonesia 810 51 101 10 80
MacedoniaF,Y Rof 820 182 235 597 36 47 119
Romania 1,200 260 90 560 52 18 112
Tunisia 1,680 226 411 1,771 45 82 354
Poland 2,240 330 426 1,010 66 85 202
Malaysia 3,090 336 655 2,707 67 131 541
Average 1,354 204 288 1,018 41 58 204
_ibaosricceo X D ataU:N tbU
I The countarvyer ageisn  thist abled o not haves tatisticavl aliditya sre gionala veragess,i ncet he inciusiono f countrieiss  determined
LatinA mericaa ndt heC aribbean:E ducationa ndT echnologya t the Crossroads 4 1
I~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Annex II:
Telecommunications Tables
Table 1:
Teledensity in LAC Countries - Number of Telephone Main Lines per 100 Inhabitants
-Haiti | 2.3 0.8 0.6 4.0 2.8
Nicaragua 5.5 2.3 1.2 4.6 2.4
Guatemala 11.7 2.7 0.7 16.5 4.3
Honduras 10.2 2.9 1.6 6.4 :3.5
Paraquav 11.0 3.4 1.5 7.3 3.3
Bolivia 8.8 4.7 4.0 2.2 1.9
Peru 10.5 4.7 2.0 5.1 2.2
El Salvador 13.8 5.3 2.0 6.9 2.6
Guyana 10.1 5.3 3.4 2.9 1.9
Ecuador 18.9 6.5 4.1 4.6 2.9
Dominican Republic 15.0 7.3 4.3 3.5 2.1
Brazil 12.7 7.5 6.9 1.8 1.7
Mexico 16.2 9.6 8.3 1.9 1.7
Colombia 22.7 10.0 7.4 3.1 2.3
Venezuela 28.5 11.1 8.6 3.3 2.6
Panama 21.4 11.4 5.8 3.7 1.9
Jamaica 16.6| 11.6 9.9 1.7 1.4
Suriname 22.5 13.0 3.7 6.0 1.7
Chile 19.2 13.2 9.5 2.0 1.5
Belize 29.2 13.4 9.4 3.1 2.2
Argentina 22.4 16.0 12.5 1.8 1.4
Trinidad and Tobago 16.8 16.0 13.3 1.3 _ 1.0
Costa Rica 17.4 16.4 15.8 1.1 1.1
St. Lucia 19.2 18.4 18.0 1.1 1.0
Uruguav 29.9 19.6 12.1 2.5 1.5
Dominica 68.8 25.1 19.51 3.5 2.7
Grenada 39.5 25.5 14.0 2.8 1.6
Bahamas, The 33.0 27.6 19.9 1.7 1.2
Antigua and Barbuda 31.7 30.3 28.01 1.1 1.0
Barbados 39.9 34.51 27.71 1.4 1.2
Source: International Telecommunications Union, World TelecommunicatioInn dicatorsD atabase, Geneva,
1997.
42 The WorldB ank:H DNED:E ducationa ndT echnologyT eam
Antiguaa nd Barbuda 42.4 40.9
Argentina 65.3 34.7 11.6
Bahamas,T he 51.3 23.3
Barbados 87.0 28.7
Belize 28.1 16.7
Bolivia 62.1 _ 20.2 0.3
Brazil 36.8 27.8 0.5
Chile 32.8 28.0 4.0
Colombia 15.2 18.8 0.3
Costa Rica 24.2 22.0 1.6
Dominica 59.2 14.1 12.! 0.03
DominicanR epublic 16.4 8.7 1.6
Ecuador 30.6 14.8 0.4
El Salvador 41.4 24.1 0.5
Grenada 59.3 15.9
Guatemala 6.1 12.2 1.7
Guyana 47.3 4.2
Haiti 5.9 0.5
Honduras 10.8 8.0 0.8 0.01
Jamaica 76.4 30.6 5.4 1.82
Mexico 24.5 19.2 1.3
Nicaragua 25.1 17.0 0.5 0.01
Panama 21.2 22.9 1.1
Pe-aauay 1 .7 14.4 0.7
Peru _ .2 10.0 0.2
St. Kitts and Nevis o5.9 24.4
St. Lucia 62.7 30.1 4.2 0.03
Suriname 73.2 19.5 _ . . 0.03
Trinidad and Tobago 47.9 31.8
Uruguay 59.4 30.5 2.2 1
Venezuela 40.7 18.0 1.0 i
Source: IntemationalT elecommunicationsU nion, Wori- Telecommunicationin dicators
Database, Geneva, 1997.
LatinA merica nrdth eC aribbeanE: ducatioann dT echnologayt t heC rossroads 43
Table 3: Costs for Telephone Services Selected Countries in
Latin America and the Caribbean (US$ equivalent)
_______ ______ .______ ________7_500  8e 30 0.01
Barbados 49 49 14 41
Belize 45 45 4CI 5 0.08c
Brazil 1,217 C t, 0.02
Colombia 357 552 0.01
Dominica 21 21 3 E
Ecuador 167 397 1 .4 0.01
El Salvador 343 343 3 6 0.02
Guatemala 258 258 1 2 0_03
Honduras 30 61 2 4 0.0t
Mexico 279 482t 14 Q.0Oc
Nicaragua 33 33 7 _7 004
Panama 1C 20 1C 20 0.OC
Paraguay 530 530 3 6_ 0.07
'Peru _ ____504 90' 9 1c6  .1C
St. Lucia _4'c c 1t 0.30
Trinidad and Toba 12 24 5 29 0.04
luruquay 384 593 c 21 0.06
Venezuela 63 531_c  0.Ot
Source: International Telecommunications Union. Telecommunication Development Report, Geneva, 1996-
Table 4: Trends in Annual Telecommunications Investment by Region (US$ million)
200
*1991 *199:2
031993 *1994
150. | _ , . .1995-2000
50 1 1 .
OEMo&O ther AFR EAP Chkha FAPwkthout ErA LAC MitA SAS
Source: The World Bank.
44 The WorldB ank:H DNED:E ducationa ndT echnologyT eam
I
Trends in Annual Telecommunications nl- umenti n Central America
81
700 * 1991 *1992
soo
600 19 9 3 *1994 
400 *
SooIDI   
100
200 - 1 - 2000
Nicaragua Panama Honduras Guatemaa ElS alvador DominalenR ep. Costa Rica
Trends in Annual Teleco-mmunicationsI nvestment in SouthA merica
7.000 . 1991 .1992
6,000 [31993 *1994
' 1995 *1996-2000
41 000 
PFaguay Lhuy Bovia liuadcr FPru Venezuela CDntlle  Ara Braei Pbico
Trendsi n AnnuaTl elecommunicatioInsv estmenItn t he Caribbean
775
I 40 _ 
100 *1991 *1992
so Cl1993 * 1994
E o0 *1199956 -2000
40
Barbados Domniea Grenada Antigua& Bela mai i Bahns Surname St Luce Tnidad & Guyan wic
Barbuda Tobago
Source: The World Bank.
LatinA r _aa nd the Caribbean:E ducationa ndT echnologya t the Crossroads 45
Table 6: Annual Per Capita Investment in Telecommunications in
Central and South America and the Caribbean (USS million)
Trends in per capita Annual Telecommunications Investment in Central
America
240.5
140
120 9 1992
100 j01993 .1994
0 o1995 *1996-2000 j 3 
40
20
Guatemala Honduras Nicaragua Panama Mexico El Salvador Costs Riea
Trends In per capita Annual Telecommunications Investment In South America
236
200
160 *1991 *1992
140 0 1993 *1994 ~
ISO
80
60
Paraguay- Brazi Ecuador DoVIv Peru Colombi Venezuela Uruguay Argenimn Chile
Trends in per capita Annual Telecommunications Investment In the Caribbean
250 *911992
*1995 *1996-2000
~100 a
Hjit Barbados Trhiided& Dominian Sursafs Bahamas Blize Guyon Domhica Grenada St.L .is Antigu & Junica
Tobago Rap Barbuda
Source: The World Bank.
46 The WorldB ank:H DNED:E ducationa nd TechnologyT eam
Antigua and Barbuda 2,424.2
Argentina - 3.2 29.6 36.9 153.6
Bahamas - -989.2
Barbados - -7.7
Belize ._ _ a_ 
Bolivia - - _
Braz - 2.0 12.4 23., 37.0 12.
Chile - 25.7 99.3 217.5 6324
Colombia - - _ 29.6 51-
Costa Rica - 0.9 66.5 241.5 43..
Dominica - - -- 5_21.1 
Dominican Rep. - -- _ 17.8
Ecuador - 4.2 13.5 29.0 43.9
El Salvador - - - - 4.3
Grenada _ _ _ _ _ - _ -
Guatemala - ___ 2.5
Guyana | - -
Haiti _ -T L 
Honduras - -
Jamaica . 30.4 65.0
M- ico 3.4 14.6 41.1 72.5 150.1
Nicaragua 11.5 34.2
Panama 6.6 55.6
Paraguay - - - -
Peru 7.3 34.5
Saint Lucia - 6.0
Suriname -
Trinidad and Tobago - - - 42.1
Uruguay 54.3 345.9
Venezuela 5.5 17.8 24.4 52.4
Source:T he WorldB ank
Latin America and the Caribbean: Education and Technology at the Crossroads 47
Table 8: Internet Fees in Selected LAC Countries
Brazil I Monthly Payment $28 for 130 hours
2 Monthly Payment $33 for unlimited time
3 Monthly Payment $40 for 20 hours, $2/hour for additional hour
4 Installation Fee $9
Monthly Payment $29 unlimited time
5 Monthly Payment $75 for 50 hours, $2/hour for additional hour
Monthly Payment $35 for 35 hours, $1/hour for additional hour
6 Installation Fee $34
Monthly Payment $39 unlimited time
Chile I Monthly Payment $19.50 unlimited
2 Monthly Payment $39 unlimited time
Colombia Monthly Payment $30 unlimited
Dominican Installation Fee $13
Republic
Monthly Payment $27 for 60 hours, $0.50/hour for additional hour
Guatemala Monthly Payment $20 for 25 hours; $30 for 35 hours; $40 for
unlimited time
Honduras Monthly Payment $60 unlimited time
Jamaica I Hourly Payment 0-10 hours, @2.20/hour
10-20 hours, @1.90/hour
20+ hours, $1.70/hour
2 Installation Fee $50
Monthly Payment $33 for 20 hours; $2/hour for additional hours
Nicaragua I Installation Fee $42
Monthly Payment $26 unlimited time
2 Monthly Payment $30 unlimited time
Paraguay Installation Fee $30
Monthly Payment $30 for 30 hours, $40 for 40 hours, $50 for 120
hours;
$1-3/hour for additional hours
Trinidad Monthly Payment $100 for 100 hours; $5/hour for additional hours
and Tobago
Venezuela Monthly Payment $67 for additional hours
Source: Codetel Internet Business Group, cited in Miami Hearld, "Latin America, Caribbean
Internet Rates," July 22, 1997, p. 2A.
48 The WorldB ank:H DNED:E ducationa ndT echnologyT eam
.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Annex III:
World Bank's Education Projects
Table I Projects Supporting Distance Education Initiatives in LAC countries as of 3/31/98
Table 2 Projects Supporting the Use of Educational Technologies in LAC Region as of 3/31/98
LatinA mericaa ndt he Caribbean:E ducationa ndT echnologya tt he Crossroads 49
C~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~C 
C-dr
(- b W--- bX9gEBF~~-- a
0 - ' 
u FJ~~~~E
JInVmeMt ofSeCo30VAA 95 1155 35.7 164A 21 _
E&duatxinn d Pblvmtdal
Edwcation Developaist
Pnnct _ __ __ _ ___
Deve1oatir 92 7.13 208 10.5 19.7 '
Bolivi E&heatGiR efrrP20ject _ .__ ___
Br_ _ _ _ 9li5o  4t0x.0iE  i1s 0.i4n B1^2s5  ic6 5 Educatbn 
Bra-zi Project 1i 245 91.5 5243 17.4
Brazil P rm Basic EheD 
Quaity Project 94 96.0 24.9 179.1 14 _
E _____ IpnnroveuertP adect 92 170 D 635 1992 3 1 ,f v 
W CoastRia Basc Edwatio ne1iabilkiohn
Deiinmien Second Baic Educatbn _ _. . 5. 3 ___ 
Rapblic DevdonrtPsojet . 37.0 79 12 8.7 ' | 
!E1l Salva S*cornda tiaE98 | 58.0 2 T-_T _ _
. iiih Basic EducionR m____
iPdroEct 96 338 1..17 85 25.5 OF
_11 Jan_A Re_f_o _ __ofSec_ 95 30.0 49 _____ _
Meco Edatim 93 1320 112 325 3.7II
Mexr__o P______d_wa_i_ P _oj 92 250D 13 305 J 42
CL Initiiao 93 80.0 .8 1022 0.7 1
Tm aurna Basiie EduedionPne 9 35 - -3-S l<70-t-* ---It*|--7 
Venemels Basic E duedb3n5P iicet .9 51 O, __z_ 89.4 | 9j_09 SS _96 
94 R9.4 90O9 1552 59…
Projects Supporting the Use of £diucational Techniologies in LAC Region as of 3/31/98
. . C...o....s....t.. .I. nformatiox Level Outcomes TechnoYlo 
Counry LEsuat
Brez. il Pa Basic _ _ _ _ _ _ _6_ _ _
& .I .~ PUic _ 
CAgentirta DecentmEzaatniodn  - - - - - _ _ 
Imprvement of 95 190.0 17.6 222.9 3 J * /
SecondaryE ducation
- Eduedon Quaity 94 96.0 312 1?9. IS .?4 * .
C. It erntioa 95 115.53 3.5 164.4 23 / _ _ *
SecondayEducation 9._
Brazil Pa-MnBaS eic
PErdoujceacttionQ uality 94 96.0 31.2 179.1 15.7 / 
IMTb| mentProject 92 170.0 6.36 192 3.2 f | / |
CJa ace  SPearcrivoDniedca ey& sipfoc f - , _ *_ _ IId*u zation f _ _ 
QualityI rproverment 95 35.0 29.85 172.59 17.3/UU /
TCoh1nSiiie1d  1fmArF ttioqEudiaurtcyicoEEnd ucatio9nf  3 -- 3rT7T 19fI  38.2.  I I I I I 
Proiect H EU1 1
TechuIoUoBgians ic 97 I' 
EducaLtion fI I- -
~T.B:nid?ad -w- LiBeH11diu1c 11±1±n
CA Tobago Project 96 51 12.28 102.69 12 1
I
Annex IV:
Selected Educational Websites: Latin America and
the Caribbean
1. <http://www.anayamultimedia.es/>
ANAYA.-S panishs ite with a list of multimediar esourcesa nd books.
Here you can accesst he "Club de los Chavales",t he stories of six young people from differentc ountriesw ho
utilize the Interneta s a communicationm eans.
2. <http://www.enlaces.ufro.cl/Recursos>
Resource Centero f the EducationalI nformaticsI nstitute,U niversidadd e La Frontera,T emuco,C hile.
3. <http://wwwprof.uniandes.edu.co/fludomati/docums.html>
"Ludomatica"p rojecti n Colombia,a nd informationr egardingc ollaborativele arningi n virtuale nvironments.
4. <http://www.arrakis.es/-mapelo/indice.htm>
Educationalr esourcesa nd links under subjecta reas and curniculumc ourses.
5. <http://www.wp.com/89444/edu/en_caste.html>
"The School",w ith links to documents,l ist of educationall inks, teachers'f orums, etc.
6. <http://ww2.grn.es/josepss/maest2.htmn>
"The Teachers'W eb",w ith linkst o resources,f orumsa nd schools.
7. <http://www.civila.com/educacion/foro-profesores>
As part of the Virtual School,t hey have the Latin ProfessorsF orum. Interestingw eb site to meet colleagues
from the region and share ideas about topics of professionali nteresta nd teachingc ollaboration.
8. <http://www.civilacom/educacion>
"The VirtualS chool". The purpose of this site is to promotet he work and exchangeb etweent eachersa nd
studentsi n Latin America. They have linkst o some of the schools'w eb pages as well as educationalp ublica-
tions.
9. <http://www.pitLeduk-rmvega/EdDevjournalshtml>
Links to electronice ducationalm agazinesa s well as documentso n educationali nformaticsa nd educational
development( some of the magazinesa re in English)
10. UNESCO
<http://www.education.unesco.orMg>a in page
<http://www.education.unesco.org:80/educnews/new_idxtiWtme>b page exclusivelyf or educationale vents
<http://www.education.unesco.org.bOr>ff icei n Brasilia, Brazil
<http://www.education.unesco.org.uy:8O0>ff ice in Montevideo,U ruguay
52 TheW orldB ankH: DNEDE: ducatioann dT echnologTye am
s
<http://www.education.unescoor g:80/orea- lex.html>O ffice in Santiago, Chile
11. Educationals ystems acco ig to UN-. 
<http://unescostat.unesco.org/yearbook/ybufame.htm>
12. Some curious problems for the mathematicsc lass
<http:/Ialgebra.us.es/-aranda/10p ract.htm>
13. Teachersi n the Network. Purpose: To make known educationalw eb sites and foster the contacta nd debate
among teachers.(fromA sturias,S pain)
<http:/lwww.airastur.es/jimena/profes2.htm>
14. Quipunet,P eru. It has links to diverse sites of interestt o teachers.
<http:llsirio.dit.upm.es/-csanchez/ProyectoP eru.html>
15. UniversidadF ederal de Sao Paulo, Brazil - MolecularB iology- EducationalP rogram in Multimediai n
the Internet.
<http://www.epm.br/ge/biomol/BIOMOL.HTM>
16. UniversidadF ederal de Sao Paulo, Brazil - GeneticE ngineering- 
<http:/Iwww.epm.br/ge/engenet/htm/ENGENE.HTM>
17. <http://www.copesa.cllicarito>
"IcaritoI nteractivo": Electronicm agazinew ith materialsf or classeso n Spanish,L iterature,M ath, History,
Geography,N atural Sciences,C ulture,A stronomy,e tc. Resourcesf or both studentsa nd teachers.
18. <http://www.nodo50.ix.apc.org/aedenat/enseorl .htm>
Informationa bout thermale nergy and its use.
19. <http://www.nodo5O.ix.apc.org/aedenat/ener_fot.htm>
Informationa bout electrice nergy generationf rom solar energy.
20. <http://www.weirdrichard.com/spanish/solaren.htm>
Descriptiona bout some educationala pplicationso n solar energy.
21. <http://www.fem.unicamp.br/-jannuzzi/solar.htrn>
Web page in Portugueset hat presentss everali deas on why the use of solar energy is not developed.
22. <http://www.iztapalapa.nam.mx/iztapala.www/cemanahu.ac/numeroO5/ecotiphtm>
Site with a varietyo f informationa bout solar energy.
23. <http://www.cab.cneaedu.ar/difusion/res_03.htm>
Informationa bout the lack of tiativest o develop methodsf or a greater use of solar energy.
24. <http://www.darwin.futuro.usp.br/energia>
Web page in Portuguesew ith general informationa bout solar energy and a learningp roject about the subject( it
includes essay proposals, constuctiono f experimentald evices and more).
25. <http://www.iearn.org>M ain Page of I*Earn. Some web sites of interesta re:
<http://www.igc.apc.org/iearn/projects.htmTlh>e  I*Earn World, see the Latin I*Eam "iearn.latina
<http://www.uanl.mx/circulosC>i rcleso f Learning
LatinA merica ndt heC aribbeanE: ducatioann dT echnologayt theC rossroads 53
26. <http://www.iecc.org>
Intercultural E-Mail Classroom Connections
27. <http://www.fumsoft.softex.br/-pitag/planets/nineplanets>
Web site in Portuguese about the solar system.
28. <http://bang.lanl.gov/solarys.portug/homepage.htm> Solar system, origins, evolution and other related
subjects. Web page in Portuguese.
29. <http://www.tsc.upna.es/Multimedia/SistemaSolar.html>
Information about the Solar System.
30. <http://www.esrp.pt/departam/gO4/04astro.html>
Site in Portuguese with information about astronomy.
31. <http://www.ccinet.ab.ca/dc/Spanish/cool.htm>
Web page with links to enviromnent information sites. Some of the links are to Portuguese web pages.
32. <http:llwww.ccinet.ab.ca/dc/Spanish/home.html>
A link from the site mentioned above, this web page presents information about conservation and recycling, and
they provide ideas for educational activities.
33. <http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/5265/conhecen.htm>
Portuguese page about water cycle.
34. <http://www.uco.es/ccc/glosa rio/glosario.html>
A glossary on terms used frequently in the Internet.
35. <http://www.pitt.edu/-kavst9>
Literature, stories, art, movies, both in English and Spanish.
36. <http://lanic.utexas.edu> University of Texas. General and specific information about Latin America.
Resources on the Social sciences.
37. <http://www.mundolatino.org /123/educa.htm> Latin World: Diverse links to web pages on education and
research.
38. <http://www.nacion.co.cr/zur qui/home.html>
Educational supplement from "La Nacion", Costa Rica
39. <http://nti.uji.es>
New information technologies applied to the education.
40. <http:M/Iinux.soc.uu.se./mapuche/indgen/indgenOO.htm>
Facts on Americas' Native Population. It includes complete texts about UN resolutions regarding the natives
population in the Americas. Interesting for the Social Sciences curriculum development.
41. <http:/M1inux.soc.uu.se./mapuche>
Web page about the "Mapuche" people in Chile, both in English and Spanish.
54 TheW orldB ank:H DNED:E ducationa ndT echnologyT eam
U~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AnnexV:
References
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B. (SRI International); Potashnik, M., and Rawlings (The World Bank). 1998. Computers in Schools: A Quali-
tative Study of Chile and Costa Rica. Education and Technology Series, Special Issue. Washington, D.C.:
The World Bank.
Bates, A W.1995. Technology, Open Learning and Distance Education. London: Routledge.
Bosch, A. 1997lnteractiveR adio Instruction: Improving Educational Quality After 23 Years, Education and
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Chacon, Fabio. 1997. "Distance Education in Latin America: Growth and Maturity":paper presented at 18th ICDE
World Conference June 2-6.
Daniel, J. 1997. Mega-Universities and Knowledge Media: Technology Strategies for Higher Education.
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Osin, L. 1998. Computers in Education in Developing Countries: Why and How? Education an,d Technology
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Perraton, H. and Potashnik, M. 1997. Training Teachers at a Distance, Education and Technology Series, Volume
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ton, D.C: The World Bank.
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Potashnik, M and Capper, 1.1998. "Distance Education: Growth and Diversity," Finance and Development,
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The 8th Annual Computer Industry Almanac, 1995.
LatinA mericaa nd the Caribbean:E ducationa nd Technologya t the Crossroads 55
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